Who is a minor? Age assessments of refugees in Germany and the classificatory multiplicity of the state

The categories that states use to classify and govern migrants often diverge from how migrants themselves perceive and experience their conditions, biographies, and identities. Building on this insight, I argue in this article that state categories not only clash with migrants’ varied notions of categories: state categorization itself often relies on multiple definitions of categories and methods of categorization. Age assessments of young refugees in Germany demonstrate this multiplicity. These assessments are carried out by forensic medical examiners and social workers, respectively, who work with very different understandings of what constitutes age. While forensic scientists view age as countable, particular, and objective, social workers think of it as lived, assembled, and constructed. What I term the classificatory multiplicity of the state complements current scholarly endeavors aimed at critically examining state categories, particularly in the context of migration governance.