FOREIGNERS IN THE GDR: MAJOR GROUPS AND RELATIONS WITH EAST GERMANS (1949 – 1990)

• Main Author: A. M. Betmakaev
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kemerovo State University 2015-09-01
• Series: Вестник Кемеровского государственного университета
• Subjects: gdr, immigration policy, social security, social integration, foreign students, foreign workers
• Online Access: https://vestnik.kemsu.ru/jour/article/view/1673
• ISSN: 2078-8975; 2078-8983

The paper studies the major groups of foreigners in the German Democratic Republic and their relations with the native population. Until recently, the Russian researchers of the German social history have overlooked this subject. The study aims at identifying groups of foreigners by considering the differences in their legal and financial standing, and describing the relations between foreigners and East Germans subject to strict political control and official propaganda of the communist regime. With reference to scrutinized publications and foreign literature, as well as employed general and special methods (classification, comparison, determination of development factors etc.), our study identified the following groups of foreigners: Soviet soldiers and their families; political refugees; international students; international companies‘ experts; foreign workers complying with the GDR treaties with foreign countries; seasonal workers and illegal aliens. The author comes to a conclusion that despite the official propaganda claiming the internationalism of East Germans, the attitude of the GDR residents to foreigners could be described as greatly intolerant and hostile. To a significant extent it was caused by the immigration policy of the ―SED regime‖, which precluded from avowing the existence of conflicts between Germans and foreigners. The immigration policy was not publicly discussed in the GDR, as it was to the full extent under control of the SED, which was guided by the ideol ogy.