Germany's preferences on the freedom of movement provisions of the Ankara Agreement: the Wirtschaftswunder and opportunity and effort of Turkish diplomacy
Why did Germany support provisions on freedom of movement for Turkish workers in the Association
Agreement between the European Economic Community (EEC) and Turkey, which was concluded in
1963? This is puzzling given that Germany was fervently opposed to other common EU measures on
legal economic migration since immigration policy was communitarized by the Amsterdam Treaty in
1999. The papers test two hypotheses. First, that the a positive economic situation induces the
German government to support common EU measures as in periods of strong growth Germany has
more open immigration policies and there is a positive relationship between open national immigration
policies and support for common EU measures. Second, a sending country (or a group of sending
countries) needs to exert diplomatic pressure on the German government in order for it to support
common EU measures on legal economic migration. For this to be successful there need to be two
conditions in place, the sending country must have the opportunity to exert influence, due to strong
historical ties with Germany or being important for geo-political reasons, and frame the need for
common EU measures on legal migration in an effective manner. The hypotheses are confirmed for
the case of Turkey and the Ankara Agreement and are used to assemble a theoretically eclectic and
generally applicable framework able to explain Germany’s support for common EU measures on legal
economic migration