MOBILITY AND MIGRATION 461
industry, or the hospitality sector. Moreover, both states found a similar
answer to a similar problem; in both cases, it can be rather justly said
that an “underclass” of foreign labor migrants was created.^79 However,
foreign policy and foreign trade considerations also played a role in these
processes; the bilateral treaties served to stimulate the integration pro-
cess in Western Europe as well as in the COMECON.^80
Both German states initially granted migrants a work permit only
for a job at a specifi c company, but these workers mostly enjoyed the
same status as German workers in terms of wage agreements and social
benefi ts. The West German welfare state and the East German “welfare
dictatorship” had a considerable infl uence on migration policy in this
respect.^81 Whereas the migrants in the GDR had to stay at the job to
which they had been assigned and were not permitted to quit, many of
the migrant workers in West Germany tried to fi nd better jobs on their
own accord.^82 In addition, protests against the poor working and living
conditions among these workers also took place in both countries. In the
mid-1970s, for example, Algerian workers went on strike several times in
East Germany, despite the prohibitions against strikes. Simultaneously,
Turkish workers led a strike at Ford in Cologne that hit the headlines,
as did a strike by migrant and German women in Pierburg-Neuss.^83 The
West German government as well as the GDR leadership reacted to these
strikes in a similar way, namely by identifying the supposed ringleaders
and sending them back to their countries of origin.
Another commonality shared by both labor migration regimes was
that the West German employers and the East German state paid for the
travel expenses to get to Germany, and the foreign workers were housed
in dormitories provided by the respective factories and companies. In
these housing facilities, workers had to comply with certain rules, includ-
ing quite strict regulations on visitations. Residents, though, found ways
around the entry checks and prohibitions about spending the night away
from the dormitories in both countries. Although life in these residences
was subject to surveillance and control, many migrants still managed to
make friends among their colleagues. Indeed, the signifi cance of these
friendships cannot be underestimated, particularly in the GDR where the
formation of migrant associations was prohibited. Foreigners were not
granted freedom to practice their religion in the GDR, nor were they al-
lowed to establish their own press outlets. In West Germany, on the other
hand, many migrants relatively quickly sought out their own apartments
(which was not allowed in the GDR), especially when their families later
came to stay, but they often faced discrimination on the housing mar-
ket. Labor migrants in both Germanys were often not permitted to enter
dance clubs or restaurants.^84 Racist images of “hot-headed, knife-wield-