"Fighting for our Rights Ourselves" – Greek Female 'Guest Workers' as Political Actors in the Federal Republic of Germany

PhD Student: Thorids Kokot, Supervisor: Isabel Heinemann

The dissertation project examines the political actions of the female so-called ‘guest workers‘ from Greece who were recruited by the Federal Republic of Germany between 1960 and 1973. Contrary to what social science and historical research suggested for a long time, women were an elementary part of the migration processes of the time: in case of the Greek migrant workers, 43 percent were female. As the dissertation argues, these employed female migrants were active participants of the political discussions in West German democracy.

The PhD project focuses on the agencies and the various forms of political action of the Greek women, but also addresses the legal and social frameworks regarding their work and everyday life in Germany. Thus, it analyzes for example trade union movements, strikes and legal preoceedings against the employers as well as civil migrant self-organization, gender role discussions and transnational protests against the Greek military regime (1967-1974).

The project aimes to present migrants' own perspectives rather than institutional perspectives. Therefore it is based on a broad corpus of sources, which for instance contains documents of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), the Metalworkers' Industrial Union (IG Metall), the Political Archive of the Federal Foreign Office, the Documentation Center and Museum on Migration in Germany e.V. or from Greek (women) associations in the Federal Republic. In addition, several interviews with Greek migrant women are conducted in order to supplement the knowledge gained from the written source material.

Founded by Ev. Studienwerk Villigst.