The Curriculum and Textbooks of the Orientation Course for Migrants and Refugees in Germany

This article presents the curriculum and its implementation in the approved textbooks of the orientation course for migrants and refugees in Germany. The orientation course for migrants and refugees is part of the integration course and consists of three modules, namely “Politics in Democracy”, “History and Responsibility”, and “People and Society”. In the module “Politics in Democracy”, the following are introduced: the basic human rights stipulated in the German Basic Law; the existence of a president based on constitutionalism; national responsibilities and national obligations; German legislative bodies and political parties; participation in society and politics. In the module “History and Responsibility”, the course participants learn the ideology of National Socialism and its consequences. This should also help them realize that the state order and the ideas of the time are incompatible with current democracy. In addition, knowledge about the reunification of East and West Germany and the integration of Europe is imparted. In the module “People and Society”, values and diversity in German society should be learned. The present article focuses on this module and introduces its theme and presentation method. The texts and tasks in the textbooks show what expectations Germans have of immigrants and refugees. That means they do not want to suffer any disadvantages from immigration, and they want to maintain their identity composed of social rules and values. However, this identity is not a German identity, but a European identity. In Europe, to maintain openness of society, cultural diversity and democracy, an educational concept for active citizenship development has been launched, which is now positioned as the goal of EU lifelong education policy. This active citizenship is the ideal citizenship of immigrants and refugees