Promised (Deutsch)land? : west Germany's attractiveness as a migration destination for the Greeks in the 1960s
Loading...
License
Access Rights
Cadmus Permanent Link
Full-text via DOI
ISSN
Issue Date
Type of Publication
Keyword(s)
LC Subject Heading
Other Topic(s)
EUI Research Cluster(s)
Initial version
Published version
Succeeding version
Preceding version
Published version part
Earlier different version
Initial format
Author(s)
Citation
Aeneas ZI WANG, Aimi MURANAKA and Florian COULMAS (eds), Immigration and quality of life in ageing societies : how attractive for migrants are Japan and Germany?, New York : Routledge, 2025, Routledge contemporary Japan series ; 118, pp. 121-137
Cite
ADAMOPOULOU, Maria, Promised (Deutsch)land? : west Germany’s attractiveness as a migration destination for the Greeks in the 1960s, in Aeneas ZI WANG, Aimi MURANAKA and Florian COULMAS (eds), Immigration and quality of life in ageing societies : how attractive for migrants are Japan and Germany?, New York : Routledge, 2025, Routledge contemporary Japan series ; 118, pp. 121-137 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/78010
Abstract
Attractiveness is a concept that involves imaginaries, transforming a mundane space into a mythical land of opportunities. How a country, West Germany, became a desirable destination for migrants, despite its recent past as their country’s oppressor? Contextualising the Greek-West German labour migration in the general Cold War atmosphere and the alternative available options in Western Europe, this chapter puts together the West German keys to success. I argue that the young Federal Republic of Germany through its post-war rebranding and its rising hegemony in Europe, became by far the top destination for Greek migrants in the 1960s. By using Greek and West German printed and audiovisual media, I locate the topoi, the discourses and the practices that created a paradigm shift in migration with an open doors policy. By studying the Greek case, we can better understand what the appeal of Modell Deutschland was. Its attractiveness was visualised in the long queue candidate migrants formed just for a contract and their one-way tickets for overcrowded trains towards the Promised (Deutsch)land.
Table of Contents
Additional Information
Published online: 16 August 2024