France and the Lost Boys : A discourse analysis examining the securitization of French children affiliated with the Islamic State in the camps of Al-Hol and Al-Roj

Abstract: Following the fall of the Islamic State, thousands of former IS fighters took refuge with their children in the camps of Al-Hol and Al-Roj where they have since been detained in degrading conditions by local authorities. In the camps are there about 27,500 children of foreign nationalities. Like the Lost Boys in Peter Pan, these children are left unclaimed as their respective countries hesitate to repatriate them. As such, the traditional understanding of children as innocent and in need of protection is defied. Drawing on the Copenhagen School of security studies and Edward Said’s theory of orientalism and employing a method of double reading, this essay examines how the political discourse in France on the Other enables the securitization of children by association with IS fighters. The analysis finds that the securitization theory can establish that the children are securitised, but it is insufficient in explaining how association facilitates the securitization process. By deconstructing the discourse through orientalism, the force of the association driving the securitization is understood through structures of power, defining the children as future threats to the republic as barbaric Others.