Suchergebnisse

The present situation of foreign workers in West Germany can only be adequately understood if one takes explicit discrimination in job allocation into account. Foreigners are kept longer than Germans in stressful entry-level jobs and are blocked in their advancement to better positions. As part of the secondary labour market of big industrial firms, they do not only serve as a reservoir of flexibility in transfers; they are also more likely to lose their jobs in a period of redundancies. The thesis is put forward that contrary to many expectations about the rational behaviour of single capital units management discriminates against foreign workers in order to gain the compliance of the majority workforce and to achieve social peace in the plants. Selective personnel policies only work as smoothly as they do because there is also a selective representation of labour interests, which put Germans first and foreigners second. Although successful in sheltering the German core workforce against the threat of job losses to some extent, this selective representation of interests may in the long run imply the danger of an ethnic polarization within the labour movement.

This article explores how the Japanese have avoided dependence on foreign labor for low skill, and low status employment. Findings suggest that the demand for low-level work remains strong; but is met with native labor, by drawing upon still-plentiful labor reserves, together with integrating low-level work into the whole occupational structure and social value system. Contracting out certain services to specialized firms is one Japanese institution that might be emulated on a wide scale in the West.

ALTHOUGH THERE ARE A NUMBER OF POPULAR THEORIES ABOUT THE INTEGRATION OR NONINTEGRATION OF FOREIGN WORKERS, THERE IS LITTLE SYSTEMATIC EVIDENCE OF THE STRUCTURE OF PUBLIC OPINION ON THAT ISSUE. THIS RESEARCH EXAMINES FOUR SUCH THEORIES: THAT FOREIGN WORKERS POSE A DIRECT THREAT TO JOBS AND SERVICES; THAT THEY POLARIZE AN OTHERWISE CONSENSUAL SYSTEM; THAT THEY HEIGHTEN PERSONAL INSECURITIES; AND THAT CONTACT WITH THEM EXACERBATES CULTURAL DIFFERENCES. WITH THE AID OF DATA FROM THE 1980 NATIONAL SOCIAL SURVEY IN WEST GERMANY, WE CONCLUDE THAT NONE OF THE POPULAR THEORIES IS SUPPORTED BY EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE, AND THAT RELUCTANCE TO INTEGRATE FOREIGN WORKERS IS NOT DEFINED IN TERMS OF TRADITIONAL POLITICAL OR SOCIOECONOMIC CONFLICT IN GERMANY. THAT LEAVES POLITICAL LEADERSHIP WITH BOTH THE OPPORTUNITY AND THE BURDEN OF LENDING DEFINITION TO THE POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE SIDE OF PERMANENT INTEGRATION FOR FOREIGNERS.