A historical term with a limited perspective.
From 1955, West Germany concluded recruitment agreements with several countries. Businesses needed workers, while the governments and companies involved often initially regarded their stay as temporary. This expectation explains the common term guest worker.
People’s lives developed in different ways. Some returned, while others stayed, formed families or were joined by relatives. Recruited women also worked in their own right. Their history cannot be reduced to that of accompanying wives.
The other three answers
The other words describe different aspects of work.
illegal workers
Undeclared work includes, for example, work for which required tax, reporting or contribution obligations are not met. This is not the term for state-organised labour recruitment. The catalogue’s English phrase “illegal workers” must not be read as a description of the people recruited.
temporary workers
Temporary agency work is a form of employment involving assignment through a temporary-work agency. It is not the historical term sought here. An initially planned temporary stay does not automatically make guest workers temporary agency workers.
shift workers
Shift work concerns working hours organised in shifts. A recruited worker could work shifts, but shift worker was not the particular historical term for the recruited group.
The expression is not a present-day residence status.
Guest worker is a historically common word, not reliable information about current citizenship, rights or belonging. It should not be applied indiscriminately to everyone with an immigration history or to their descendants.
The recruitment stop of 1973 did not end the presence of people already living here. Labour recruitment, return, permanent residence and family reunification are different processes. The exam question asks only for the common term used at the time.
Guest workers · Federal Agency for Civic Education ↗Post-war recruitment → guest workers.
The clue is historical recruitment, not a shift schedule or employment through a temporary-work agency.
Three words for this question
- anwerbenrecruit
- Seek people for a particular job or activity.
- vorübergehendtemporary
- Intended to last for a limited period.
- die Arbeitsmigrationlabour migration
- Moving to another place or country in connection with paid work.