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The Local Impact of the European Economic Community: The Economic and Social Ties of Alsace with West Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Susan J. Koch
Susan J. Koch
Affiliation:
Assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Connecticut.
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Extract

The aim of this study is to analyze the impact of the EEC on one border region, the French province of Alsace, through an examination of its economic and social transactions with West Germany since 1960. No great increase in Alsatian social ties with Germany has been observed, but there has been considerable growth in economic contacts, leading to a new prosperity for the province. Alsatian economic integration with the rest of France is not increasing as fast, but it has not been noticeably weakened. Alsatian elite and public opinion generally supports the growth of economic bonds with Germany, largely because of their contribution to economic welfare. Transaction and attitude data indicate a continuation of the present trend of important economic, but only limited social, ties between Alsace and its German neighbor.

Type
Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , Spring 1974 , pp. 153 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1974

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References

1 When used in this article, the term integration refers simply to the level of shared activities. No particular threshold is implied; any economic or social transaction indicates some degree of economic or social integration. Also all references to Germany are to the Federal Republic.

2 For differing assessments of the desirability of such a development, see Mérigot, J.-G., “Politique d'intégration européenne et politique de développement régional,” Revue de défense nationale 15 (August-September 1959): 1361–74Google Scholar; and de Rougemont, Denis, “Vers une fédération de régions,” Bulletin du Centre Européen de la Culture 12 (Winter 1967–68): 35–56.Google Scholar

3 On this subject, see the author's “Integration in Alsace: A Study in Pluriregionalism” (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1971).

4 See the following section, “The Setting: The Province of Alsace.”

5 See Bopp, Marie-Joseph, L'Alsace sous l'occupation allemande (Le Puy: Mappus, 1945).Google Scholar

6 See Bord, André, “Tribune libre: La Vc République pour l'unité nationale et pour l'Europe,” Derniéres nouvelles d'Alsace, 4 March 1967Google Scholar; and Pflimlin, Pierre and Uhrich, René, L'Alsace, destin et volonté (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1963), pp. 249–50.Google Scholar

7 “La Politique étrangére de la France et l'opinion publique, 1954–1957,” Sondages 20, nos. 1–2 (1958), pp. 73–74.

8 Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE), Direction de Strasbourg, Régionale, “Religion et langue parlée en Alsace: Recensement de 1962,” Bulletin régional de statistique, 4th quarter 1965, pp. 11–12Google Scholar; and Coutrot, Aline and Dreyfus, François-G., Les Forces religieuses dans la société française (Paris: Armand Colin, 1965), p. 111.Google Scholar

9 When used in this article, the word national refers to France, interior to that part of France outside Alsace, foreign to countries outside France, and provincial to Alsace.

10 See Rochefort, Michel, L'Organisation urbaine de l'Alsace (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1960)Google Scholar; Rimbert, Sylvie J., “Frontiéres et influences urbaines dans le ‘Dreiländerecke’,” Regio Basiliensis 6 (April 1965): 37–57Google Scholar; and Ministére de l'Equipement et du Logement, Inspection Généerale de la Construction, Circonscription Alsace, Etude d'armature urbaine de l'Alsace, Colmar, January 1970.

11 All references to Alsatian companies or Alsatian industry are to firms located in the province. No precise data exist on how many of these are actually locally owned. Before 1945, most Alsatian industry was locally controlled, but there has been a steady increase in foreign and interior French ownership since the mid–1950s. See Comité d'Action pour le Progrés Economique et Social HautRhinois (CAHR), L'Economie haut-rhinoise: Analyse des structures en 1966 et perspectives d'avenir jusqu'en 1970, Mulhouse, 1967, pp. 11–12; Allen, Kevin and MacLennan, Malcolm C., Regional Problems and Policies in Italy and France (London: Allen and Unwin, 1970), pp. 143–45Google Scholar; and the discussion that follows in this section of the article.

12 All EEC references are to the original Six.

13 INSEE, Annuaire statistique de la France, 1972, Paris, 1972, p. 485.

14 See Comite pour l'Economié Bas-Rhinoise (CEBR), Eléments de compatibilité économique appliquée à l'industrie bas-rhinoise pour l'année 1965, Strasbourg, n.d.; and Circonscription d'Action Régionale d'Alsace, Les Orientations du VIe Plan dans la Région d'Alsace, Strasbourg, June 1969.

15 INSEE, Direction Régionale de Strasbourg, Tableaux de l'economie alsacienne, Strasbourg, 1964 and 1970, pp. 74–75, 106–7. The categories used were those developed by the Commission Nationale de l'Aménagement du Territoire (CNAT) in 1964 to predict the evolution of French industry between 1962 and 1985. See CNAT, “Essai sur la structure géographique de l'industrie française,” in University of Grenoble, Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Centre d'Etude et de Recherche sur l'Administration Economique et l'Aménagement du Territoire, Aménagement du territoire et développement régional, les faits, les idées, les institutions: 1965–1966 (Paris: Documentation Françcaise), p. 352.

16 Nonn, Henri, “Chronique alsacienne,” Revue géographique de l'Est 6 (July-December, 1966): 358–59Google Scholar; and Délégation à l'Aménagement du Territoire et à l'Action Régionale (DATAR) and INSEE, Statistiques et indicateurs des régions françaises, Paris, 1969, p. 68.

17 Between 1956 and 1967, 377 Alsatian firms, employing 25,300 workers, went out of business; but 303 new firms, with 31,500 employees, were created. See Société Alsacienne de Développement et d'Expansion (SADE), Le Dynamisme industrial en Alsace, dans le pays de Bade et dans la region bâloise, Strasbourg, 1968, p. 12.

18 See the discussion that follows in this article on “Social Integration.”

19 Between 1969 and 1971, the number of foreign workers in Alsace went from 40,000 to 54,000. Between 1962 and 1970, Alsatian industrial wages rose by 92 percent, compared to 84 percent in France as a whole. See INSEE, Direction Régionale de Strasbourg, and DATAR and INSEE, Statistiques et indicateurs des régions françaises, Paris, 1971, p. 209.

20 Guégan, Jean-Marie, Un Exemple d'expansion economique régionale: L'Alsace de 1954 à 1961, rev. ed. (Strasbourg: CEBR, 1964), pp. 165–66.Google Scholar

21 Investments from the Benelux countries and Italy have been very limited.

22 In 1969, the average French worker was reported to cost his employer approximately $2.04 per hour, while his German counterpart cost $2.40 (cited in Derniéres nouvelles d'Alsace, 5 January 1972). Alsatian labor costs, and the number of working days lost through strikes, were below the national average.

23 See Deutsch, Karl, “Communication Theory and Political Integration,” in The Integration of Political Communities, eds. Jacob, Philip E. and Toscano, James V. (Philadelphia: J. P. Lippincott, 1964), pp. 66,–67.Google Scholar

24 INSEE, Direction Régionale de Strasbourg,Tableaux, 1964 and 1970, pp. 34–35, pp. 48–49.

25 INSEE, Direction Régionale de Strasbourg, “Les Actifs migrants par lieu de résidence et lieu de travail,” Bulletin de statistique Alsace, 4th quarter 1966, p. 16; and Département du Bas-Rhin, Service de l'Action Economique, Enquéte socio-économique, mars 1968: Les Localités de destination des travailleurs migrants, Strasbourg, n.d., pp. 176,178.

26 Edel, Raymond, “Le Délicat probléme des frontaliers,” L'Est industriel et commercial, special edition, January 1966, p. 25Google Scholar; and Derniéres nouvelles d'Alsace, 14 October 1971.

27 CAHR, Etudes frontaliéres, Mulhouse, 1970, pp. 6–7.

28 Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Strasbourg, Recueil des délibérations, octobre 1964-septembre 1965, Strasbourg, 1965, pp. 34–35.

29 The general absence of social contacts with Germany by Alsatians with Germanic cultural characteristics lends strong support to the view that the decisive motive for the frontier workers was economic; see the discussion that follows.

30 In a general survey done by IFOP in Alsace in 1971, every respondent claimed to have visited Germany at least once. See “Une Etude régionale: Problémes alsaciens,” Sondages 34, no. 4 (1972), p. 144.

31 INSEE, Direction Régionale de Strasbourg, La Situation démographique, économique et sociale,1962–1970.

32 The question asked was: “Have you been to Germany at least once in your life and if so, did the way of life make you feel that you were in a foreign land or at home?” Of all those polled, answering “at home”: 40 percent of professionals, senior executives, and shopkeepers; 46 percent of junior executives and white-collar workers; 36 percent of blue-collar workers; and 28 percent of farmers. Taking into account only those who gave an opinion, the results are 44 percent, 48 percent, 45 percent, and 35 percent, respectively. See Sondages 34, no. 4 (1972), pp. 142–44.

33 See, for example, Commission de Développement Economique Régional (CODER), “Avis de la Commission de Développement Economique Régional,” in Circonscription d'Action Régionale d'Alsace, Préparation du VIe Plan: Esquisse de programme régional de développement et d'équipement, Strasbourg, 1970, annex; and Chambre Régionale de Commerce et d'Industrie d'Alsace,Les Perspectives du commerce extérieur en Alsace, Strasbourg, March 1969.

34 See the discussion of these various proposals in CODER, and by an ADIRA round table on the frontier worker problem reported in Derniéres nouvelles d'Alsace, 30 May 1970.

35 Guichard, Oliver, “La France et l'Allemagne face au probléme de la régionalisation,” Documents: Revue des questions allemandes 24 (July-August 1969): 71–73.Google Scholar

36 Pflimlin cited in Ami du Peuple, 23 March 1969; Unrich, in Stuttgarter Zeitung, 13 May 1969Google Scholar; and Colmar Chamber of Commerce in Howiller, Alain, “Alsace,” Les Echos, 8 May 1969.Google Scholar

37 See especially Lutten, L.-P., “Pourquoi ne pas préférer l'Alsace à la Normandie?,” L'Alsace, 11 March 1969.Google Scholar

38 As quoted by Howiller, p. 12.

39 SADE, pp. 6, 28.

40 As quoted in Derniéres nouvelles d'Alsace, 10 October 1972. See also CODER.

41 “L'Opinion française et l'union de l'Europe, 1947–1972,” Sondages 34, nos. 1–2 (1972), pp. 61, 96.

42 Of all the Bas-Rhin respondents, 42 percent felt that German wealth and power was good for Alsace. See Sondages 34, no. 4 (1972), p. 133.

43 Forty-four percent of all 20 to 34 year-old persons in the IFOP survey gave a positive response to this question; of those expressing an opinion, 60 percent were positive. These data are in Sondages, 34, no. 4 (1972), p. 133.