| Summary: | In this article, we examine the representations of Finnish children living in the al-Hol refugee
camp in Eastern Syria. Our data consists of materials published in 2019 in the Helsingin
Sanomat, the largest subscription-based newspaper in Finland, which we analyzed using
discourse analysis. As a result of our analysis, we identified and named three discourses
representing children in al-Hol from different perspectives. These discourses are the victim and
threat discourse, the legal discourse, and the problem discourse. In the victim and threat
discourse, children were portrayed as both in need of assistance and as a potential security threat
in the future both if brought to Finland, but also if they remained in the camp. In the legal
discourse, bringing children to Finland was justified as a legal obligation, leaving aside other
perspectives related to helping children. In the problem discourse, bringing children to Finland
was described as highly problematic. Across all discourses, children were represented as
unwelcome. This representation was strengthened by describing children through their mothers,
justifying assistance as a necessary evil, and highlighting children’s connections to Isis.
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