Studies on Social Hygienic Problems Appertaining to Foreign Children and Their Families in the Federal Republic of Germany

Among the foreign children and foreign families living as guest-workers or refugees in the Federal Republic of Germany, the Turkish people evince the most medical, social and hygienic problems. On the one hand they are the most representative group (the number has increased in the last few years by 1.5 million) and on the other hand a very deep rift exists between the host country, which has highly developed medical, social and hygienic standards, and their state of health, their national and traditional way of living, their customs and their religion. Sometimes, these newcomers come across the same unhygienic and social conditions in the host country as those they have left behind. Naturally, other major difficulties are the language barrier, the climatic change and cultural distinctions. The children of these newcomers seem to be the ones mostly affected by these problems, i.e. when at school and in contact with persons of the same age. Only a small number of Turkish families and those of other guest-workers — those whose children were born in Germany and those who have lived there for several years — have been able to adapt to German everyday life, so that their social and medical problems have become similar to those of the indigenous population.