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Austria Foreign Workers in Austria
One of the constant factors on the Austrian manufacturing
scene since the 1960s has been the employment of foreign workers.
Some of them were refugees from Eastern Europe who chose to
remain in Austria and were permitted to do so. Others were from
Turkey or farther away. In 1973 the number of foreign workers had
reached about 227,000, or about 8.7 percent of the work force.
After that, as Austria's own boom began to slow after the first
"oil shock" and the global slowdown during the mid-1970s, the
Austrian government began reducing the number of foreign workers
to protect the positions of Austrian workers. In 1978 the number
of foreign workers had been reduced had about to 177,000. In the
1980s, the number had dropped to approximately 140,000 to
150,000, or about 5 to 6 percent of the labor force. As in other
West European countries, foreign workers in Austria performed and
continue to perform many tasks not wanted by Austrian workers.
The number of foreign workers began rising rapidly in 1989,
as the borders with Eastern Europe became more porous, and almost
doubled by 1990. The number of foreign workers actually peaked
during the middle of 1991 at about 280,000, or more than 8
percent of the work force. The Austrian government began taking
vigorous border-control and administrative measures in order to
prevent further entry of these workers into the labor force. The
number began dropping during the last several months of 1991, as
it had during the 1970s when the government intervened, but there
was no certainty that the government would be as successful
during the 1990s as it had been during the 1970s because of the
more open borders between Eastern and Western Europe. What was
more probable was that the rise in Austrian unemployment during
the early 1990s, as a result of the Austrian recession, would
reduce the number of foreign workers. The unemployment rate among
those workers is higher than among native Austrians. Although
certain elements of the Austrian economy, especially hotels and
restaurants, cannot function without foreign workers, many
Austrians resent the employment of foreigners when many Austrians
are without work
(see Attitudes Toward Minorities
, ch. 2).
Data as of December 1993
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