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Based on an ethnography of the public definition of the category of unaccompanied foreign minors in France, the author seeks to shed light on the logics of assignation surrounding the border between minority and majority. In the face of these two legal regimes, each with contrasting issues, both legal decision makers and mijeurs (minor-majors) are involved in establishing an age limit that is difficult to comprehend. The article reveals the norms relating to child protection and the place of children in society, through their naturalized opposition to the adult world.