Abstract

The German Orientation Course is considered as one of the most important measures of integration policy in Germany. It is a mandatory German language and cultural course dedicated to refugees and immigrants. It aims to provide knowledge about the German political system and certain ‘cultural’ German values. This article examines the Orientation Course as an intercultural encounter, as a place which is institutionally and politically framed and also as a hierarchically didactic arena where cultural mediation takes place. It illustrates also how invective communication happens through the establishment of certain communicative patterns which can degrade or disparage social groups. Based on participatory observation in the Orientation Course using the Genre Analysis, this article argues in which ways these communicative patterns can affect the social order and unite or shape groups.