The children of seasonal workers: clandestine children After the Second World War Switzerland became a main destination for Italian immigrants: just in 1970, 500.000 people arrived in this country from Italy. Turnover was high as well as the number of seasonal workers, the so-called guestworkers (Gastarbeiter). Treated just like “arms” and numbers by Swiss statistics guestworkers were needed by Swiss economy, but were living in deplorable conditions. Guest workers wanted to be joined by their relatives, but family reunification was limited and restricted by the law. Despite these restrictions, wives and children arrived anyway. Illegal children, in particular, had no rights, and lived in a country where there was no room for them: they could not leave their homes, which were hovels intended for the Italian immigrants, and could not go to school.