Images of Migration

In 1961 the Federal Republic of Germany signed a recruitment agreement with Turkey. It was the second such agreement; a similar one had been made with Italy 6 years earlier. During the economic upswing of the 1950s, the demand for industrial workers grew. The recruitment agreements were intended to counter the labor shortage in the booming West German economy.

In the same year—1961—the German Youth Photo Prize was founded. The competition, sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Youth, was intended to encourage talented young people in the field of photography and is still awarded today. In 1979 the Children’s and Youth Film Centre in Germany (KFJ) took over the organization of the event.

The Deutsches Historische Museum (German Historical Museum) has been preserving the collection of approximately 10,000 photographs that are on permanent loan since 2009. It gives a broad impression of social and cultural developments in German history—always from a youthful perspective.

A recurring theme in the images of young people is migration. The collection contains numerous pictures from the 1970s to the 1990s that deal with people who were then called "guest workers."

Many of the guest workers from Italy, Turkey, Greece, and Spain worked in industrial occupations. Fixed-term contracts aimed to prevent people settling permanently in Germany. As a result, some of the workers lived in separate dormitories that belonged to the companies.

The photos from the competition during this period frequently offer personal insights into people's lives. They illustrate their everyday lives and concerns, including racism at work and problems finding accommodation.

It wasn't only men who came as part of the recruitment agreements; women made up 30% of guest workers in 1973.

In addition to the open competition of the German Youth Photo Prize, additional contests around annual themes were soon announced. The theme in 1975 was the situation of foreign workers in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Young people were called upon to approach this topic from their own perspective. Their photographs show the living situation of migrants. The subject of these pictures is often isolation.

Since the 1990s an increasing number of young people whose parents came to Germany as guest workers have taken part in the German Youth Photo Prize.

It wasn't until the 1970s and 1980s that society realized that many of the supposed guest workers saw a future in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Many of the 4.7 million people who fell into the category of "foreigners" in 1982 started families in Germany. Their children formed what is known as the "second generation."

The increased presence of migrant families was also reflected in the photos; in them, young people captured West German society as shaped by immigration. Migration was part of everyday life, especially for young people.

The photos from the German Youth Photo Award show family life close up, and in part from an individual perspective.

In some cases, reference to the topic of migration is seen in the titles of the photographs. The original title of this picture is "Gastarbeiter-Straße" ("Guest Worker Street")

Children born in Germany to immigrant parents often felt conflict between their parents' background and everyday life in their country of birth.

Many young people dealt with this situation in a playful way.

The photographer of these pictures, Nuran Soyclan, writes: "I am Turkish. I live with my family here in Germany just like my friends."

She continues: "When I'm with my grandparents in Turkey, I live in the old Turkish tradition. These pictures illustrate the different lifestyles."

During this period, no political consequences resulted from the fact that the Federal Republic of Germany was a country of immigration. Until the 1990s policy aimed to reduce the number of "guests" who remained after the recruitment ban—who were in fact immigrants.

Photos from the German Youth Photo Prize show that a multicultural society was a reality by the 1970s. This picture of a Turkish celebration was taken in 1975 for the themed competition exploring the situation of foreign workers in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Migrants who came to Germany as guest workers contributed to the "economic miracle" and prosperity of the 1960s. However, xenophobia became more widespread from the 1980s onward.

It was a topic that caught the eyes of young photographers as early as the 1980s, as this picture from 1982 shows. After German reunification in 1990, racially motivated attacks occurred, some of which resulted in fatalities.

Photos from the German Youth Photo Prize in the 1970s and 1980s document an important period in Germany's long history as a country of immigration and show how young people of different ages perceived migration.