Will Germans Soon Be Going To Turkey To Work as Gastarbeiter?

Nov. 9, 2022 (EIRNS)—An Oct. 30, 2011 article by Deutsche Welle explained that “in the 1960s, Turkish workers arrived in Germany to fill the demand for cheap labor in a booming post-war economy. Many of them never left, creating a minority community that changed the demographics of Germany forever.” By the mid-1980s there were 1.5 million Turks in the 10 West German states, out of 2 million foreign “guest workers,” or Gastarbeiter.

Are the tables about to be turned, under the new reality created by the collapsing Western financial system and the insane sanctions against Russia? “Germany Faces Sharp Drop in Real Income” is the headline RT runs today covering a report from Nov. 8 by the Ifo Center for Macroeconomics. Their projection is that real income loss will reach €110 billion during the 2021-2023 period, which equals 3% of Germany’s annual economic output. Germany is being forced to stop its imports of Russian oil and natural gas, and its exports to Russia are also collapsing under the weight of the sanction policy.

Turkey, on the other hand, is launching a major project with Russia to become a gas hub for all of Europe, while its exports to Russia are soaring. Turkey’s Energy Minister Fatih Donmez stated Nov. 8 that they have started paying for some of the natural gas from Russia in rubles, and that the two sides are conducting “technical work” to determine how to increase that percentage over time. In September, Ankara and Moscow agreed that Turkey would pay for 25% of its gas supply in the Russian currency.

RT reports that

“data from the Turkish Institute of Statistics shows that trade between Moscow and Ankara has been expanding rapidly lately, with the volume of goods supplied to Russia hitting a monthly record of $1.1 billion in September. Turkey is becoming one of Russia’s major trading partners and could overtake Germany in terms of export volumes, data suggests.”

If things continue this way, desperate unemployed Germans will soon be traveling to Turkey to work as Gastarbeiter, in order to send money home to their families in Germany.