Migrant workers: photographs of a new working class

Nine photographers – Mauricio Bustamante, Henning Christoph, Andrea Diefenbach, Brigitte Kraemer, Ingar Krauss, Wolfgang Müller, Oliver Tjaden, Ralf Tooten and Hans Rudolf Uthoff – explore the phenomenon of migrant workers throughout the past fifty years.

While the exact numbers are not known, it is estimated that in China alone, 200 million people are moving from rural areas to the metropolis of Shanghai, Hong Kong and Shenzhen in search for work. But also in other parts of the world, people leave their homes in the hope of work and better prospects.

The exhibition addresses this global phenomenon with series from China (Wolfgang Müller), Thailand (Ralf Tooten), Moldova (Andrea Diefenbach) and Germany (Oliver Tjaden, among others), spanning five decades – from the immigrant labourers of the sixties (Hans Rudolf Uthoff, among others) to the migrant workers in present-day Hamburg (Mauricio Bustamante).

Further information at Museum der Arbeit