The recruitment agreement signed between West Germany and Italy on 20 December 1955 laid the foundations for Germany becoming a country of immigration. The bilateral agreement was signed by Federal Labour Minister Anton Storch (CDU), despite fierce opposition from his own party, and Italian Foreign Minister Gaetano Martino, who was a member of the Partito Liberale Italiano (PLI). Italy had already been preparing for the signing of the treaty since 1950 due to its own economic situation. Workers from the south of Italy, in particular, were recruited to work in Germany, as the economy in the south remained weak despite support programmes from Rome. Many people were forced to leave Italy, especially the south, due to poverty and limited educational opportunities. The Italian government saw the recruitment agreement with Germany as an opportunity to reduce the country’s rising unemployment and strengthen the economy via access to foreign currency.
Italian trade unions succeeded in having important demands written into the German-Italian agreement. In addition to socio-political and collective bargaining equality for workers, appropriate accommodation was also to be guaranteed. The aim of the trade unions was to use the law to counteract the exploitation of Italian workers. The workers’ contracts were initially for one year, and were extended according to the needs of the factories. The recruitment agreement applied a rotation principle to regulate labour migration to Germany: workers were supposed to return to Italy after a fixed period. The workers were therefore referred to as ‘guest workers’. In 1956, around 12,000 workers came to Germany. In each of the following years, a further 20,000 came, although many of them did not return to Italy, instead bringing their families to join them in Germany.
Even though the bilateral agreement between Italy and Germany was initially greeted with euphoria, Italian workers were subjected to racism and marginalisation. Signs reading ‘No entry for dogs and Italians’ or ‘No entry for Italians’ were hung at the entrances to many pubs and restaurants in Germany. German workers, meanwhile, demanded that their Italian colleagues be denied access to dance halls, whereupon some companies and factories built dance halls especially for Italian men. This strict separation between work and leisure ultimately led to the marginalisation of Italian workers and fuelled resentments towards them.
Workers from Italy are often left out of current debates about guest workers and their stories. The fact that they also experienced racism and exclusion like guest workers from other countries is increasingly forgotten due to the romanticisation of Italy by many in Germany. For many, however, migration to Germany was also an opportunity to further their education, learn to read and write, and attain better living conditions for themselves and their families.
