How Age Makes a Difference: Practices of Classification, Belonging and Political Subjectivity Among Young Refugees in Germany

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Katharina Schramm
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: from 2018 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 409314830

What constitutes and characterizes minority or legal majority among refugees – and how does age make a difference in terms of rights (of residence), politics and affects? These are the central questions of our project. In the first research phase, we focused on age estimation practices and their effects on "unaccompanied minor refugees". By analyzing medical and youth welfare practices of age estimation, we showed that age is not inherent in the body or character of the refugees, but rather enacted in multiple ways through the interplay of scientific and youth welfare standards, studies, samples and selections from them, as well as in notions of youth and adulthood. We understand age estimations as one of the "differentially including" (Mezzadra and Nielson 2012) hinges for movement opportunities within Germany and the EU which influence the socio-economic life chances of refugees and their emotional well-being. The life designs of "unaccompanied minors" unfold at the intersection of youth welfare services’ logics like needs for assistance, the gaining of personal autonomy as well as integration on the one hand and migrants’ uncertainty regarding their residence status on the other.In the second research phase that we apply for here, we want to investigate the consequences of age determinations for individuals considered to be of full age. First cases have shown that this classification can lead to EU-wide mobility and deportations, homelessness or accommodation in adult housing, dropping out of school, illegalized farm work and to protests. We want to investigate such cases and thereby analyze the connection between age-specific political subjectivity → space/mobility → life chances more comprehensively. In addition, we want to focus on the resistance of refugee activists who have protested in various ways against their assessments as adults. For epistemological and research policy reasons, we are planning this project phase as a collaborative research with refugee activists, which shall culminate in a variety of publication formats.With both research phases, we contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the role of age and the consequences of age determinations in the EU migration regime. With our background in practice theory, we introduce a relational concept of age in the migration system into childhood and youth studies as well as migration research. In addition, we expand the analyses of classifications of "unaccompanied minor refugees" and migrant protests by theoretically incorporating historical and contemporary global interdependencies, which are also addressed by protesting refugees. Overall, this should enable the analysis of the significance of age estimations in the context of global inequalities.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants