The case of “Gastarbeiter” (“guest workers”) is a specific phenomenon in the history of migration in Germany, and the word itself is a thoroughly problematic term from the historical sources. It initially addressed a mobile and flexible work force in a particular political program of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) between 1955 and 1973. This form of migrant labour shaped postwar (western) Germany and its economic development. It has become (again) a vital field of research in the last few years, especially among economic and social historians such as Oliver Trede, Jennifer A. Miller, Simon Goeke, Olga Sparschuh, Stefan Zeppenfeld, and Lauren Stokes.

Lena Foerster's work utilizes the approach of micro-politics. It was initially developed to embrace enterprises as “a field of social interaction” (Thomas Welskopp), analysing structures and processes of negotiation between workplace actors. The thesis focusses on the iron and steel industry of the (mainly western) Ruhr area, namely the Hüttenwerke Oberhausen AG (HOAG), August Thyssen-Hütte (ATH), and Fried. Krupp Hüttenwerke (FKH) between the 1950s and the 1980s. Moreover, it frequently refers to labour migration in the coal and automobile industries, which broadens the narrower perspective and allows for more generalised insights. Overall, the question is raised how labour unions, workers’ councils, management, and the individual workforce interacted on the issue of “foreign employees.” The study is primarily based on company records, supplemented by collections of the trade union (IG Metall) and employers’ associations, as well as regional records and contemporary sociological studies. It aims at examining the migrant labour force as “active actors” in the company (17). This is accomplished in ten chapters, which can be divided into two main analytical parts.

After an informative introduction to the topic and the current state of the research, the first part (chapters 2 through 5) covers contextual work on the economic and political backdrop as well as the business-historical framework, conditions, and continuities of migration to the Ruhr area before and after 1945. Chapter 5 finally elaborates on the specific question of “guest workers”’ employment in contemporary personnel policy debates of the 1960s and the 1970s. Most interestingly, the employment of “foreign labourers” was only one possible solution of meeting the labour shortage. The possibility of employing more women was considered as well and soon discarded.

The second part (chapters 6 through 9) covers the main empirical work. Chapter 6 looks at legal institutions of employee participation and introduces operational practices such as the “industrial relations director.” His position as a mediator between management and employees had direct implications on the employment of migrant labour. The iron and steel industry, however, accounted for only a small share of the migrant workforce of up to 200,000 people per year in the Ruhr area. Accordingly, the chapter demonstrates that employment of migrants from Turkey, Italy, Yugoslavia, Spain, etc. was strongly linked to economic fluctuation. Apart from government agencies, companies increasingly used informal solutions to recruit workers directly. This workforce proved to be a flexible instrument for personnel policy. Differences between the workforces became particularly clear when workers’ councils and trade unions of the iron and steel industry tended to back the German permanent workforce during the swelling crisis in the 1970s.

The core of the analysis and the concrete field of migrant employment are accessed through the narrower topics of participation (chapter 7), accommodation (chapter 8), and daily (work) routines and conflicts (chapter 9). The practices of participation confirm a rather low degree of organisation of migrant workers. In addition, few lines of conflict with workers’ councils and trade unions are identified. Overall, the study attests to a high degree of integration in everyday work, which, unlike in other sectors, such as the automobile industry, is also manifested by a low tendency to organized protest, for example through unauthorized strikes. At the same time, however, Foerster shows that everyday life of the migrant workers was not without conflict. These become especially visible in questions of accommodation and leisure activities (chapter 8). While the companies were primarily interested in low-cost accommodation, transport, etc., they were prepared to respond to employees’ complaints and wishes. Moreover, the line between leisure and work was blurred, and problems as well as fields of actions intertwined. These parts of the empirical analysis most convincingly demonstrate the migrant workers’ scope for action and agency.

Chapter 9 moves closest to the workplaces themselves through the sources of the internal “factory court” of the HOAG. This forum created a space for communication to solve misunderstandings, perceived injustices, and concrete problems in a (mostly) cooperative manner. It highlights urgent questions of language and skills, which were the source of the majority of identified conflicts, accidents, and misunderstandings. In response, the companies used interpreters and language courses. The book finally addresses questions of discrimination but remains cautious, arguing that it was rather “subliminal” and “unconscious” (270), despite many examples of stigmatisation in the analysis itself. This also hints at the limits of the empirical sources: The study mostly relies on contemporary concepts and vocabulary of “foreign workers” and nationalities. Unfortunately, the book does not reflect approaches from migration history or (global) labour history. We learn little about the different groups of people themselves (e.g., geographical distribution, socio-economic background, workplace distribution, internal hierarchies).

Overall, Lena Foerster's book gives instructive insights into migrant labour relations in the iron and steel industry of the Ruhr area, which is long overdue. Regarding the central question of sources of power and enforcement of interests, it shows that migrant workers were underrepresented and demonstrated “low confrontational behaviour” towards general strikes and trade unions (276). Conflicts and discontent moved to different arenas of negotiation but were actively and continuously used in the examples analyzed. The book thus lines up with several studies that, especially in addition and in comparison to each other, shed new light on questions of labour relations and “guest workers” in the FRG. However, Foerster's is mainly a business-historical perspective (and published in a series on business history). Questions of labour history are relegated to the background – in contrast to what the title word “Maloche” (hard work) and the cover picture might suggest. However, this is not a sign of the book's limited merit but rather an indication that there is still promising work to be accomplished at the nexus of business, social, and labour historical approaches.