The bracero and european guestworker programs revisited: A comparative analysis

Bu çalışma Acil Çiftlik İşgücü (Bracero) Programını ve Avrupa Misafir İşçi Programını (Türk göçmen işçilerinin Federal Almanya tecrübesine odaklanarak) tarihsel ve karşılaştırmalı olarak incelemektedir. Amerika Birleşik Devletleri ve Meksika arasında imzalanan Bracero ve Federal Almanya ile Türkiye arasındaki Gastarbeiter programları ev sahibi ülkelerdeki (Amerika ve Almanya) domestik işgücü arzının yetersiz kaldığı işgücü talebini karşılamak üzere tasarlanmış programlardı. Her ne kadar geçici programlar olarak uygulamaya konmuş olsalar da, misafir işçi programları Amerika ve Almanya’daki en büyük göçmen topluluklarının oluşumunda önemli rol oynamışlardır. Bu yazıda bu iki programın benzeşen ve ayrılan yönlerinin analizi aracılığıyla ekonomik ihtiyaç güdümlü uluslararası göçün dahi tekil bir olgu olmadığı, sosyal ve siyasi etkilerinin de olduğu gösterilmek istenmiştir. Bu programlar emek gücünün kullanılması ve idamesi ile yeniden üretiminin kurumsal ve fiziki olarak ayrıştırılması üzerine kurulmuş olsa da, programların iptalinden çok sonra bile göçmen cemaatlerinin yerleşmesi ve genişlemesine yol açan süreçler haline gelmişlerdir.

This paper analyzes two guestworker programs, the Emergency Farm Labor (Bracero) program and the European Guestworker Program (by focusing on the Turkish migrant workers in the Federal Republic of Germany, the Gastarbeiter) in a comparative historical manner. The Bracero Program between Mexico and the United States of America, and the Gastarbeiter Program between Germany and Turkey were both bilateral labor recruitment agreements designed to meet the labor demand of the host countries, the US and Germany, where domestic labor supply failed to meet. Even though they were both effective temporarily, they had significant implications in the formation of immigrant communities in the receiving countries. By underscoring the basic similarities and differences between these temporary labor recruitment programs, this paper aims at showing that international migration is not solely a temporary phenomenon responding to economic necessities but has social and political repercussions. While both programs were based on the institutional differentiation and physical separation of the maintenance and reproduction of migrant labor force, each ended up paving the way for the formation and expansion of immigrant communities even long after the abolition of initial labor recruitment agreements.

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