The Third Republic continued the program with the government of West Germany to recruit South Korean nurses and miners as "Gastarbeiter", which began in the final months of the Supreme Council. The costs were largely paid for by the South Korean government, with only their wages and some language services paid for by their West German employers. The Koreans in Germany were able to wire large sums of money to South Korea because their wages, much higher than available back home, greatly exceeded their subsidized living costs. The "Gastarbeiter" South Koreans have since been argued as a major cause of South Korea's rapid economic growth in the late 20th century.