“A few kids at least” A Sirian children reaseatlmente experience in Uruguay

Abstract

This article addresses the Resettlement of Syrian Refugees Program in Uruguay, implemented in cooperation with UNHCR from 2014 and interrupted in 2015, targeting children victims of the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria. Throughout the text, we discuss how a sector of the refugee population — defined around the chronological age understood as correlate of a specific and differentiated moment of the life cycle — becomes a central category in dispute. We focus on the struggle between the different senses that are established for the categories of children and minors, the ways in which they are re-elaborated in each context and how they are linked to the projected assimilation processes. We propose that, beyond human rights, what finally mobilizes the actions around resettlement is a strong nationalist impulse that reinforces a national identity: the Uruguayan one.