ABSTRACT
Drawing on the evidence presented here of the ways in which refugee children are treated in a variety of potential ‘host’ countries, two broad strategies can be discerned. I characterise these as strategies of non-incorporation and biolegitimacy, respectively. In the first strategy the orientation may be characterised as nonincorporation or deflection. Here it is not so much a question of offering children poor treatment as of preventing children being incorporated into distinctive politico-legal spaces where claims of asylum may be made and legally required welfare support provided. The strategy of non-incorporation underpins a raft of measures directed towards repelling children without proper entry documents from entering countries, or for removing them swiftly if they have.
