A tiny island in the Indian Ocean is the latest battleground in France’s immigration debate. High immigration into Mayotte, a French territory where around 80 per cent of people live below the poverty line, is leading to a debate over what it means to be a French citizen. The row may cause France to upend its constitution.
Mayotte, a tiny archipelago measuring 374 square kilometres, has seen its population almost quadruple to around 260,000 since 1991. Around half of the population now comes from the neighbouring Comoros, which voted for independence from France in 1975. Many are attracted by the prospect of their offspring becoming French citizens. But the numbers are now so high that France’s government is considering changing the law for the island.
Removing droit du sol would cause Mayotte to diverge from the rest of the Republic
For years, the droit du sol has conveyed citizenship rights by virtue of a child’s birth on French soil. The acquisition of citizenship is not automatic and is subject to certain conditions, but Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, thinks that those caveats are not enough.
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