Putting cooperation and solidarity first

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung: More than six decades later, people are still talking about the “Gastarbeiter” generation. What does this term mean to you personally?

Esin Citlak: I arrived in Germany in December 1969 and started work in the following year. I was just 15. The term “Gastarbeiter” wasn’t really used in those days; it didn’t appear until much later. 

In the workplace, no one talked about “Gastarbeiter” or about being a foreigner at all. Everyone just tried to get along, and we taught each other any words we didn’t understand. There was no hostility or negativity, and we had never even heard of the word “far-right”; that didn’t exist until the 1980s. Since then, new labels have continually been invented for this small minority, and politicians have exploited them for their own ends. But over 80 million people live in this country, and only a small fraction of them weren’t born here.  

Actually, in Turkish culture, you don’t make a guest work. That‘s why I‘ve always felt these two words don‘t go together at all. What you call “guest workers” were in fact workers recruited on one-year contracts.

Long before people from migrant communities became more visible in parliamentary politics, they were already active on works councils and as union representatives. What can this teach us about managing labour migration today?

Cooperation and solidarity should be our top priority. We must always remember that all workers are equal. Working life is the same for everyone: the law, working hours – they apply to and affect each and every one of us. 

I worked for Grundig in Nuremberg for a long time and was elected to their works council in 1975. Many of my colleagues from different departments, both German and Turkish, voted for me. We achieved a great deal through warning strikes as well as the full strike we organised in 1995. Shorter working hours, more annual leave, wage increases – these were all down to our efforts. We were the pioneers, and our works council was one of the best in the country. The people who work there today probably have no idea of any of this. 

When it came to food, we fought for the canteen to offer pork-free dishes and other items like olives and cheese. Some colleagues were also determined to have a prayer room. We even managed to get one set up at one of the Grundig plants, but the idea fizzled out and people just found their own spaces in storage areas instead. Otherwise, there were absolutely no problems between Germans and non-Germans in those days. When we went on strike, everyone walked out – first the non-Germans, then the Germans. It all went smoothly 99 per cent of the time. 

As a works council member and union representative, I essentially held four roles at once: woman, union official, council member, and Turkish woman. I was always the one who was elected and sent wherever I was needed. I treated everyone equally; I didn’t give anyone preferential treatment, nor did I neglect anyone. This was about rights – about having rights and ensuring they were upheld. When you advocate for a cause, you need to make sure everyone benefits – not just the Turkish community and not just the German one either. However, this also means that employees with Turkish, Italian, and Greek roots have to do their part in advocating for workers’ rights at their company. Unfortunately, we are not seeing enough of this at the moment.

Transnational ways of life have been part of German-Turkish migration history for decades. This includes being able to feel a sense of belonging to more than one country. What does this mean for the current debate on social cohesion? 

I’ve always known that I had two home countries. I love living in Nuremberg – it’s my city. I would never want to live anywhere else in Germany. Of course, I also love Istanbul – it’s where I grew up and went to school. Germany has become my second home because my parents never planned to return to Turkey. I got married here, too, and have never wanted to go back. 

Now that I’m retired, I’d like to spend most of the year here with my grandchildren and the rest of the time in Turkey, when the sea is warm. Both countries are part of who I am. But really, the world belongs to all of us. As human beings, we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be limited by borders in our minds. Every country in the world is our home!

Fast-forward to 2036. It’s the 75th anniversary of the German-Turkish Recruitment Agreement. What visible changes will show that we are a step closer to an inclusive society everyone can participate in?

The politicians who cook all this up should go out into the community and talk to people. I hope politics becomes genuinely more socially minded. People must come first. We need to raise awareness that we are human beings, with our own languages, customs, and faiths – we are all human, but just a little bit different from one another. Some go to the mosque, others to church or the synagogue. We must treat one another with respect and be able to live together in harmony, without inciting hatred.

The interview was conducted by Zoe Klein.

Esin Citlak was born in Turkey in December 1955. In 1969, she moved to Nuremberg where she started working at Grundig, serving as a works council member and union representative from 1975 to 1996. She was also active on the City of Nuremberg’s Integration Council and in the SPD party. After completing training in office administration, she went on to work as a political secretary at the IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt union (the German construction, agriculture and environmental workers’ union), where she organised employees and helped establish works councils. Today she is retired but remains active in the trade union movement and in the SPD.