The invention provides water-soluble or water-swellable copolymers
obtained by free-radical copolymerization of A) acryloyldimethyltaurine
and/or acryloyldimethyltaurates, B) if desired, one or more other
olefinically unsaturated, optionally crosslinking comonomers containing
at least one oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur or phosphorus atom and possessing a
molecular weight of less than 500 g/mol, the copolymerization C) taking
place in the presence of at least one polymeric additive having a
number-average molecular weight of from 200 g/mol to 10.sup.9 g/mol. The
water-soluble or water-swellable copolymers of the present invention are
useful in paper processing, laundry detergents, textile processing,
petroleum extraction and formulating cosmetics.