Arbeit

Abstract

In the world of work, one of the enduring issues in the Bundesre-publik, and also in Switzerland, has been the problems caused by the influx of immigrant workers, Gastarbeiter, who came from the poorer countries of Europe and the Near East during the 1960s and 1970s. Attitudes have generally been hostile to these foreign workers, but the first article below looks at the whole question more positively, seeing real benefits for society in the presence of citizens from other cultures. The second passage chosen is quite different; Peter Bichsel’s short piece Der Milchmann conveys a picture of an individual worker in an older, simpler time.