Hamid's Story and the Politics of Gratitude in a German Language Course Book

From the perspective of an immigrant from a Muslim-majority country, this story sends a troubling message: the message is that simply escaping war should be enough reason to be grateful. I am still not sure how to tell this story, but I guess it makes sense to start with what I found problematic in the first place, which I believe I explained quite well in my letter to the publisher of the book. So, everything here is like the original email I sent them, except for the parts in bold. Subject: Concerns Regarding the Representation of Immigrants in Your Book Dear Publisher of One of the Few and Biggest German Language Coursebooks, I am currently a student in a Berufssprachkurs B2, and I would like to address some problematic aspects of the textbook used in our course. I strongly believe that these textbooks, along with your German language classes, play a crucial role in our immigration experience. They are often among the first places where we encounter German culture outside of our…