462 MAREN MÖHRING
ing southerners,” “philistine” Eastern European, and Africans “from the
bush”^85 circulated virulently in both German states, attesting to the last-
ing infl uence of colonial as well as Nazi traditions and racist mechanisms
of exclusion. Even though racism was a crime in East Germany—unlike
in the Federal Republic—there were criminal attacks against migrants in
East Germany as well, especially in the 1980s as part of a rise in right-
wing extremist groups on both sides of the Wall. The press, however,
maintained its internationalist, friendly paternalist tone until the collapse
of the GDR, and mentioning confl icts was taboo.^86 In the heated debates
in West Germany, on the other hand, migration had predominantly been
seen as a problem from the 1970s onward.
In spite of the parallels traced above, the situation of labor migrants in
East and West Germany clearly diff ered in many respects. Recruitment in
the GDR was always done collectively, and the groups that came together
often stayed together for their entire stay in the East. West German com-
panies, on the other hand, recruited people by name. In West Germany,
individual labor migrants entered into the country with a work permit
that had been acquired in advance from the German consulate or with
a tourist visa, and then they looked for work once they got to Germany,
but this was never the case in the GDR. These unoffi cial ways of entering
the country were consciously made available in the Federal Republic in
order to save on recruitment costs and avoid becoming dependent on the
countries that were sending workers.^87 Similarly, the freedom of these
labor migrants to choose whether or not to migrate and decide about
their options in the GDR were much more limited than in West Germany,
especially since the Stasi kept tabs on foreign migrants.^88 The isolated
nature of the dormitories, most of which were located on the outskirts
of town, also prevented labor migrants from interacting much with the
East German population.^89 The GDR was also very consistent in rotating
workers in and out, and there were no plans to have families follow their
relatives to the GDR. In fact, it was not even possible for labor migrants
to extend their stay up to ten years until the 1980s, but this by no means
implied that they were to be granted permanent residency.^90 The only for-
eigners who were permitted to become permanent residents in the GDR
were those who married East German citizens. That said, however, bina-
tional marriages had to be approved by the state, which did not welcome
such unions. In addition, labor migrants who became pregnant were sent
home.^91 Yet it should be noted that the GDR leadership did make a clear
distinction between women from Mozambique or Vietnam and Polish
women, for example, who were not subject to these discriminatory regu-
lations.^92 Apparently, therefore, there was also a two-class system among
foreign workers in the GDR that diff erentiated between Europeans and