Governing resettlement: Interrogating tensions and contradictions around age, vulnerability, and integrate-ability in the Irish context

Abstract

Deploying a lens informed by humanitarian reason and governmentality this article interrogates the normative assumptions underlying resettlement for international protection in the Irish context. Drawing on findings from a qualitative study on the needs of children and parents admitted under the Irish Refugee Protection Programme, it highlights tensions and contradictions underemphasised in the existing literature, including those deriving from assumptions which inversely associate age with integrate-ability. Such assumptions place a heavy burden on the young, perceived to be the most adaptable. The danger pointed to in this article is that those deemed least adaptable - adults with limited prior education - might not be prioritised for supports due to negative assumptions about their prospects. Somewhat paradoxically, the ‘most adaptable’ – children resettled at primary-school age or younger – might also miss out on supports as they are deemed likely to succeed in any case.