The return of Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps this week has reignited a familiar public debate – fear, anger, outrage and politics. Three women were arrested on arrival and face serious allegations linked to terrorism and slavery offences.

But beneath the headlines and the language of “Isis brides” sits a more uncomfortable reality: many of the children stepping on to Australian soil this week have spent much of their lives in camps shaped by war, deprivation, ideological extremism and chronic instability.

And, whether people like it or not, their future is now tied to ours.

There is understandable public concern. Islamic State was responsible for extraordinary brutality. Some of the adults returning may have actively supported the caliphate and, where criminal offences are alleged, they must move through the process of justice, one that ensures accountability, due process and the rule of law.

But accountability and reintegration are not mutually exclusive. In fact, one depends on the other.

The challenge is that Australia still struggles to talk about these cases with nuance. We tend to collapse everyone into a single category: terrorist, victim, sympathiser, threat. Reality is far........

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