Some Unintended Effects of Guest Worker Programs

Rita Chin will discuss "Some Unintended Effects of Guest Worker Programs," focusing in particular on the case of Turkish guest workers in postwar Germany. She examines the inherently conflicting goals of state-sponsored guest worker programs: states endorse "guest worker" migration as a quick and efficient way to address labor shortages within crucial economic sectors, and at the same time, they rely on the circumscribed legal parameters of "guest worker" migration to prevent or preclude permanent immigration. Precisely because these goals often operate at cross purposes in practice -- that is, economic considerations often lead to an extension of work and residence permits, guest worker programs create unintended consequences for the nationality status and legal security of migrant laborers.  She will use the case of Turkish guest workers in Germany to tease out some of the obvious and not-so-obvious implications of guest worker regimes.