School Problems of Foreign Workers’ Children in the Federal Republic of Germany

Abstract

In 1980 there were about 4.5 million foreigners living in West Germany, i.e. 7,2 % of the total population. 83 % of the Europeans among them came from the six “recruitment countries” Portugal (112,000), Spain (180,000), Greece (298,000), Italy (618,000), Jugoslavia (632,000) and Turkey (1,462,000; in 1983 1.5 million =35 %). Most of the foreigners live in Nordrhein-Westfalen (1,380,000) and Baden-Württemberg (920,000). If we take the total population into consideration then West Berlin, with 111 foreigners per 1,000 citizens, and Baden-Württemberg, with 99 per 1,000 citizens, have the highest quota. Within the Länder the foreigners are concentrated in the big cities: more than 50 % of them live in cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. 19 German cities have more than 10 % foreigners, in the eyes of some experts and politicians a critical situation, because 10 % are considered to constitute the borderline beyond which problems with foreigners become unsolvable.