The migration of foreign workers to Germany in the decades following World War II began at the invitation of the German government. During the 1950s and 1960s, as Germany recovered from the devastation of the war, the key limiting factor in German economic growth was a shortage of labor. By the early 1960s, there were more unfilled jobs in Germany than there were Germans on the official unemployment lists. The government responded by signing agreements with a number of countries to allow the temporary migration of “guest workers.” When those guest workers defied government expectations and sought to settle in Germany, it raised a host of unexpected questions. How would these “foreigners” fit into German society? What adjustments would Germans have to make as their country grew more diverse? How did the permanent presence of guest workers challenge prevailing notions of what it meant to be German?