298. In the GDR, migrants mainly came from …

Answer options

1. Vietnam, Poland, Mozambique.
2. France, Romania, Somalia.
3. Chile, Hungary, Zimbabwe.
4. North Korea, Mexico, Egypt.

Explanation

The GDR did not conceive of immigration in a liberal sense but as state-managed “contract labor” under bilateral treaties with fraternal socialist states, notably Vietnam (1980 agreement) and Mozambique (1979). Polish nationals also came in significant numbers for work and study, facilitated by geographic proximity, COMECON structures, and Warsaw Pact frameworks. This migration was tightly regulated (dormitory housing, no family reunification, no path to naturalization) and explicitly temporary within the planned economy. After unification, residence-law solutions had to be crafted for former contract workers, feeding into later regularization measures and the modern Residence Act.