The sudden increase of asylum applications in the aftermath of the 2015 “refugee crisis”, has sparked the debate on the concept of “deservingness” in public discourse. Who deserves to enter into European territory? Who deserves to receive state-funded assistance? This article unpacks the notion of “deservingness” by analysing the rationalities of care underpinning a European-funded local support programme in Antwerp (Belgium). The programme offers special assistance to former unaccompanied minors, recognised as beneficiaries of legal protection, who have recently turned 18. By examining the categories, attitudes and perceptions shaping this local project, we show how the idea of “deservingness”, a central notion in wider European discourses on refugee reception, is reproduced and critically implemented by local actors of refugee assistance. Drawing on focus group interviews with five municipal and civil society organizations, we untangle legal, moral and economic dimensions of deservingness and illustrate how these can overlap or contradict each other within stakeholders’ perspectives. The analysis of the different stakeholders’ perspectives about the assumed characteristics of this “new” category of refugees deserving special care shows the significance of stakeholders’ respective organisational backgrounds. On a deeper level, ideas on deservingness reflect stakeholders’ different aspirations about the kind of citizens young refugees should become. As such, this chapter contributes to deeper understanding of moralities and rationalities shaping public discourse and local reception of refugees in Europe. It also highlights the role of localities in shaping innovative policies and in the wider debate on refugee assistance.

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