Abstract
This chapter demonstrates how ‘nonlegal forms of normative ordering’ (Merry 1988: 870) such as those that inhere in national discourses and perceptions, and that are held by legal subjects themselves, can interrupt and recast formal legal structures. The chapter focuses on unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in Greece and their experiences of residing both in shelters and refugee camps. The ethnographic material presented includes narratives of the minors about their life in Greece while waiting for the examination of their asylum application. The chapter highlights the shortcomings of reception for unaccompanied minors in Greece, the ways in which care is often experienced as constraint by unaccompanied minors, and the ways in which they are able to exert agency and defy their categorization as vulnerable victims.