MOBILITY AND MIGRATION 465
ting these refugees. All over West Germany—apart from Bavaria—the
refugees were not selected on the basis of their political views. This ap-
pears to have refl ected a “trend towards the universal principle of pro-
viding protection for victims of political persecution under dictatorship of
all political hues” that was not dictated by the axiomatic constellations of
the Cold War—at least in the Federal Republic.^105
Both German states reacted to the same situation in Chile by accepting
refugees, but they did so using diff erent legal bases that were linked to di-
vergent political goals; they did, however, share the common aim of pro-
viding humanitarian relief. Whereas these refugees evoked ambivalent
feelings among portions of the West German population because of their
left-wing political affi liation, the supposed and real privileges granted to
these emigrants in East Germany unleashed rejection and even jealousy
within the GDR.^106 The Chilean émigrés were given 2,500 to 3,000 Marks
upon entry, plus they were granted interest-free loans, and, above all,
highly sought-after housing in new apartment blocks.^107 In particular,
the chance to travel to the West that was usually only granted to certain
Kader (cadres) irked many East Germans, especially since these oppor-
tunities were sometimes used as a way to then stay in West Germany or
other Western countries.^108 Many of the Chilean émigrés, most of whom
were put to work in jobs in production that fell well below their actual
qualifi cations, also petitioned for permission to go to the Federal Repub-
lic.^109 As early as 1968, moreover, several hundred Greeks resettled to the
FRG as a result of the repression of those Greek civil war refugees who
the Stasi considered to be “Eurocommunist” and therefore too Western
in their political orientation.^110
In light of the wary surveillance of the refugees by the Stasi and the
general mistrust among the population, the political refugees in the GDR
were by no means “equal members of a socialist collective that was trans-
national in its outlook,” but rather they were only “tolerated guests in a
nationally defi ned German community.”^111 Unlike the so-called tempo-
rary contract workers, they were permitted to bring their families with
them, and they were not housed in isolated dormitories. It was therefore
at least theoretically possible for them to take part in the everyday life of
the GDR. Ultimately, however, there were really not very many people
who came to the GDR as political émigrés; they were, in fact, the smallest
group of foreigners living in the GDR.^112
In West Germany, too, asylum-seekers played only a marginal role in
migration to the country until the recruitment stop in 1974. Only a few
thousand of them entered the Federal Republic each year, and the major-
ity came from Eastern Europe.^113 Over the course of the 1970s, the num-
ber of asylum-seekers increased, as it did all over Western Europe, and