European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 05, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday september 5,1977 the stars and stripes Page 13 hard times for Europe s migrant workers by Jonathan Kandell new York times he smell of stale cigarette smoke Hung heavily in the drab poorly ventilated Union Hall in Paris. Men of a dozen nationalities dressed in flowing african Robes Middle Eastern fizzes and bleached Blue jeans mingled in the aisles trying to communicate with each other in rudimentary French. It was a general meeting of the Paris subway maintenance workers who had completed a month Long strike for higher wages and improved safety and health Mea sures. The meeting called to explain to the 950 workers the settlement reached with the subway authorities had dragged on for almost two hours because the French speaking chairman s declarations had to be translated into arabic turkish and several african languages. After each translation a chorus of hooting would erupt from a Section of the audience and the chairman would bring Down his Gavel trying to maintain semblance of order. But in the end the settlement was accepted at terms far below those the workers had asked. These Are hard times for the millions of foreign workers in France and much of Western Europe. Many of these Middle Eastern african asian and Southern european immigrants arrived during the Boom period of the 1960s and earlier. They filled the lower paid More menial jobs in agriculture Industry and services jobs that Western europeans found too unattractive to accept. But the Welcome mat for these immigrants has been withdrawn in recent years As the Western european economies have been mired in unemployment and inflation. Immigrants Are being accused of occupying jobs that local unemployed europeans could fill. Most immigrants find inflation rapidly eroding their purchasing Power yet they do not have the bargaining leverage that other groups enjoy. And the atmosphere of economic and Politi Cal discontent has exacerbated racial prejudices against the immigrants. In France where two million foreign workers account for about 20 per cent of the manual work Force the government during the last three years has prohibited the entry of new immigrant labor except from the common Market countries. Last month the French government began a program of Fering about $2,000 to each foreign worker who agreed to return to his Home country. Evidence of hardening attitudes toward the immigrant labourers abounds in other european countries As Well. Denmark and West Germany have also closed their doors to non common Market immigrants. In West Ger Many the number of foreign workers has fallen to about 1.9 million from a 1973 Peak of 2.6 million. Only last month Sweden registered its first outbreak of racial violence in recent memory when about 200 swedish youths clashed with workers from Syria in a town near Stockholm. In Switzerland a referendum was held three years ago on whether immigrant labourers should be sent Home. The yugoslav construction workers in Bonn. Measure was decisively Defeated but the government has reduced the numbers of seasonal foreign workers it admits. In the Netherlands the recent outbreaks of terrorism involving part of the 40,000-member South moluccan Community intent on regaining its Homeland in the indonesian archipelago have raised fears of a racial Back lash against other foreign communities people who have no desire to leave the Netherlands. And in Britain the number of immigrants from Commonwealth coun tries has been a racial and political Issue for More than a decade. In France immigrant workers account for one of every three Miles of roads built two of every five housing units built and one out of every four cars produced. They Are heavily concentrated in Paris. But even in smaller cities like Amiens a traditional farm Industrial Center about 70 Miles North of the capital the immigrants Are no longer a Novelty. The garbage strewn passageways of the Paris subway system have recently focused attention on the plight of the maintenance workers almost All of them Middle Eastern and african immigrants. In terms of Low wages and bad working conditions they Are about As badly off As any other group of foreign labourers said Marthe Gravier a Union official helping to coordinate the maintenance workers strike. These workers were earning $350 a month for a 45-hour week. The nation s monthly minimum is $320. The work ers asked a raise to $470, plus subway passes gloves for those who have to pick up garbage and insulation to protect workers who clean next to the electrified rails. Magazine the negotiations were particularly difficult because o the language barriers and because the maintenance workers Are not employed directly by the subway authorities but by subcontracting concerns. In the end the workers accepted the $25-a-month raise the contractors offered. I cannot believe we accepted this kind of offer said one North african who like other workers insisted on anonymity because he feared reprisals. I Haven t sent Money to my family for the last three  this North african Call him Ahmed came to France seven years ago. While looking for a Job he stayed with a Cousin in a one room apartment. After find ing employment sweeping garbage in the subways Ahmed moved into a hotel dormitory in effect an Ille Gal Hostel where men working different shifts take turns sleeping in the same rooms for half a Day. I worked at night and when i would get Back to the hotel the other worker would turn Over the room to me said Ahmed. We hardly communicated because he could t speak French. Sometimes the hotel did not even bother to change the sheets and  during the last two years Ahmed has been living with a couple in a Small apartment on the outskirts of Paris. He spends almost half of his income on rent and travels three hours a Day getting to and from his Job. Ahmed 32 years old has visited his wife and three children in North Africa five times in the last seven years. Like Many foreign workers he has decided against bringing them to France because i cannot afford to have a family Here on the salary i am  recently Ahmed and the other subway maintenance workers received a letter from Lionel Stoleru the Secretary of state in charge of Blue Collar labor advising them of the government s plan to pay for eign labourers $2,000 to return to their countries of origin. You have just completed a period of work in France and you thus have the same rights As French workers the letter stated. But perhaps you might wish instead if you had the Means to return to your Home in your coun try and resettle there. Because of the Gravity of the employment crisis the government offers you this new possibility in proposing to you Aid for your  Ahmed said that he considered the offer too Small and that at any rate he was unlikely to find employment in his own country. According to the maintenance workers Union the government offer was discussed in recent Assem Blies but none of the labourers accepted it. The idea that foreign workers Are responsible for the plight of the More than one million unemployed French men has gained credence in some sectors of Public Opin Ion. Last year Francois Ceyrac president of the National Council of French employers suggested that frenchmen should be urged to look for certain jobs occupied until now by immigrant  but such suggestions Are greeted with scepticism by Many economists Union officials and foreign workers them selves. The last thing i worry about is losing my Job to a Frenchman said an african worker from Mali walking out of an Assembly of the subway maintenance Union. No Frenchman would do what i do for what i get  Atalic in pc Manv by others by Wellington Long United press International or 90 years the phrase made in Germany stamped on a manufactured product guaranteed that it was a High Quality item made by German hands in one of the world s most sophisticated and efficient Industrial societies. Some however think the Mark ought now to be amended to read made in Ger Many by turks yugoslavs italians greeks spaniards and other foreigners. About 13 per cent of West Ger Many s labor Force Are foreigners. The number of foreigners in work forces ranges from about 2.4 per cent in the Bahl sen crackers and cookie factory in Han Nover to 7.5 per cent at Volkswagen an higher elsewhere. A recently published study shows that two thirds of the workers Between 25 and 35 years old in the Mannsmann foundries in Duisburg Are foreigners. The comparable figure in the Krupp foundries in the same City is one half. Every fourth child born in Duisburg in 1975 was a Turk. The authors of the study predict that by 1981, one third of All Pri Mary school children in Duisburg will be no German. The Federal labor office registers about 1.9 million foreign labourers 527,000 turks 390,000 yugoslavs 276,000 italians 178,000 greeks 111,000 spaniards and 63, 000 portuguese to name the largest nation Al  so that is a million less than were working in the country just before the re cession following the yom kippur War in the Middle East in october 1973, and the subsequent Arab Oil Price rises. The government then ordered a suspension of recruitment of foreign labourers while employers faced with thinning order books began offering financial induce ments to foreign workers willing to quit and return Home. But if the remaining 1.9 million for eign labourers were to leave the Whir Ling wheels of German factories and Public services would suddenly Decel Erate the turnover of German retail ers drop dangerously. The foreigners Don t want to go Home or if one or another does decide to leave at least two wait to replace him in what to Many a Man living around the Mediterranean seems the promised land. Until recently the foreigners could remain in Germany Only As Long As they had work a situation underlined by the name Gast Arbeiter guest workers the germans gave them. But seven months ago the state govern ments liberalized the residential rules. Now a foreign worker with a Job initially gets a residential permit for one year with the possibility of two year extensions. After five years the worker can get an unlimited residential permit and after eight years an irrevocable residential permit. The states however saw no reason in the face of one million unemployed West germans to remove the restriction on the recruitment of new foreigners even though Many branches particularly the gastronomic and building trades complain germans generally prefer to remain Job less than to take what they now consider demeaning positions fit Only for non Ger mans. The government next must face the problem of the children of the foreign labourers. Officials report that because of Lan Guage and associated difficulties about one half of them never finish High school which pretty Well condemns them to joblessness. The Duisburg study showed that of 2,375 foreigners Between 16 and 18 years registered there in 1975, 43 per cent neither went the school nor had employment