This GIF highlights Hüseyin’s naiveté about moving to Germany as a guest worker. Here we see him grinning hopefully at the welcoming speech delivered upon his arrival. As we have discussed in class, “guest workers” that migrated to Germany in the 1960s and 1970s were not always treated as guests. They worked low-level jobs and were separated from their families for long periods of time. Moreover, they struggled to assimilate into an unwelcoming culture, while also juggling the need to maintain their own. The 1970 Der Spiegel article “Komm, Komm, Komm – Geh, Geh, Geh” remembers of these migrant laborers, “They are not given any gifts; they do not enjoy any special status; they are only invited to join in the production process.” Almanya: Willkommen in Deutschland touches upon these topics. It depicts Hüseyin working subordinate jobs and pining for his family back home in Turkey. And while the film engages thoroughly with a people balancing two cultures at once, it does not fully express the consequences of battling social disparities. Rather, the film glosses over these challenges with rose-tinted comedy. This GIF offers one such example. Hüseyin venerates his new identity as a “guest worker.” His nod is ironic and laughable because it indicates that he believes his new position is a respectable and desirable one, when the reality is quite the opposite. Though the film recognizes the irony in this moment, it does not stress just how seriously Hüseyin is mistaken, when he can really only expect long days on the job, and long nights away from home. On the other hand, it can be argued that the film uses comedy to bring to light these hardships, and I shall be curious to see whether such an argument is made…