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Based on a multi-site survey of young people migrating from Morocco to France, this article sets out to analyse the ambivalent and sometimes competing discursive logics and logics of action implemented in the name of the “good of the child”. It particularly focuses on the institutional work of empowerment that can be seen in the way these young people are cared for. Based on the study of this population “on the margins” of child welfare services, this article aims to observe how moral work with young people categorized as “unaccompanied minors” sheds light on the processes by which young people are governed through social and humanitarian action. Exploring the discourses and practices of protection and autonomy, the article questions the impact of the increasing number of mechanisms and actors involved in young people’s experiences of migration, and looks at their different forms in Morocco and France.