12 30 October 2018

La Vie Chère and the Challenges of Illegal Immigration: Paradise Lost in France’s Indian Ocean Départements

Katarina Welborn Research Assistant Indian Ocean Research Programme

Summary

The French island territories of La Réunion and Mayotte are the geographical focus of French

influence in the Indian Ocean region. La Réunion, part of the Mascarene Islands chain, has

been fully integrated into the French Republic since 1956. In contrast, Mayotte, part of the

Comoros archipelago, became the 101st French département in 2011, following a 2009

referendum. The Mahorais (as the residents of Mayotte are known), voted overwhelmingly

Key Points

A range of economic and social challenges are being encountered in the

French overseas départements of La Réunion and Mayotte.

High costs of living, poverty and unemployment have provoked waves of

social unrest and protests against the French Government on both islands.

The continuous arrival of illegal immigrants from the neighbouring

independent Comorian islands has placed significant pressure on

Mayotte’s hospitals and schools and has brought increasing resentment

from local residents.

The French Government has implemented measures aimed at reducing

the disparities between the mainland and overseas France, stepping up

security measures and providing aid to improve living conditions in the

Comoros.

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in favour of becoming a département due to the economic and security benefits associated

with deeper integration with France. Both départements present Paris with some significant

economic and security challenges however. Popular protest against la vie chère – “the costly

life” – has become rife on both Mayotte and La Réunion. Consequently, the French

authorities are attempting to implement measures to reduce the social and economic

inequalities between the overseas territories and the mainland. The continuous arrival of

illegal migrants from the nearby independent Comorian islands poses significant social and

economic challenges for Mayotte. Many Mahorais blame increased crime levels on migrants

and resent the pressure that migration is placing on local hospitals and schools. The French

authorities are also working to improving the quality of life on Mayotte and increase

development, while implementing measures to reduce the lure of a better life for the

impoverished people of Comoros. Improving living standards on the Comorian islands is

ultimately essential to stemming the flow of migrants to Mayotte.

Analysis

High consumer prices, persistent poverty and rising unemployment have, with increasingly

regularity, provoked social unrest and strike action on Mayotte and La Réunion. Both islands

suffer from small, isolated and sluggish economies. Mayotte has the highest unemployment

rate and the lowest per capita income level of all 101 départements, with 84 per cent of its

population living below the poverty line. The island’s economy is heavily dependent on

French financial assistance. Mayotte has no exploitable mineral resources and must import

the majority of its food requirements.

The economy of La Réunion has also been affected by high levels of unemployment,

particularly among the young population. The unemployment rate, coupled with high living

costs, has led to high levels of poverty across the island. The per capita income of La Réunion

is around 80 per cent of that in metropolitan France. The level of poverty in Reunion,

however, reached 42 per cent in 2010, compared to 14 per cent on the mainland. The

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disparity highlights the underlying levels of income inequality that exist on La Réunion, and

which has fuelled social tensions.

La vie chère has caused widespread protests and demonstrations across both islands. The

high prices of basic commodities in the two dependencies exceed those in metropolitan

France, leaving island residents with much weaker purchasing power while having to pay

considerably more for food, petrol and other essential goods. La Réunion has previously

experienced social protests against la vie chère in 1991, 2009 and 2012. In a report from its

visit to the island in 2012, a delegation from the French Senate acknowledged that the

protest movement ‘revealed a context of important crisis’, as well as raising ‘fundamental

questions regarding the development of the society and its positioning vis-a-vis the

metropolis and the other overseas departments’. Subsequent developments on the island

have confirmed La Réunion’s social instability. On 9 October 2018, a call for a national strike

resulted in hundreds of people joining demonstrations in Saint-Denis and Saint-Pierre. The

protests centred on opposing some of the social policies of the government of President

Emmanuel Macron, in particular issues relating to costs of living, wages and the

maintenance of social protections and pensions.

Containing illegal migration to Mayotte has presented a significant challenge for local and

French authorities. The four Comorian islands, including Mayotte, were a single French

colony until 1975, when the residents of Mayotte chose to remain an overseas French

territory and the other three islands became the independent Union of the Comoros. Since

then, frequent political turbulence and chronic poverty on the independent islands have

prompted thousands to flee to Mayotte on small fishing boats known as kwassa-kwassa.

While Mayotte has a considerably lower standard of living than any other French

département, it nonetheless offers vastly better standards of medical care, educational

facilities and job opportunities than are available in the Comoros. The standard of living per

capita in Mayotte is twelve times higher than that of Comoros and the average wage in

Comoros is about one-third of the minimum salary on Mayotte. The rate of immigration has

risen since Mayotte became an overseas department in 2011 and, as the development gap

continues to widen, the attraction of Mayotte grows. Foreigners are now estimated to make

up 42 per cent of the population of Mayotte.

The illegal kwassa-kwassa traffic from Comoros has resulted in a considerable number of

deaths and created significant challenges for the way of life on Mayotte. The high number of

shipwrecks, drownings and disappearances has led to the stretch of water separating the

Comorian island of Anjouan and Mayotte being labelled the kwassa-kwassa cemetery.

According to estimates by the French Senate, the sea voyage to Mayotte claimed a

staggering 400 to 600 lives per year between 1995 and 2012.

Uncontrolled immigration has placed significant pressure on the island’s health, housing and

education services. Schools are bursting at the seams. Mayotte’s school population has

experienced annual increases of five per cent in recent years. With around 90,000 students

currently enrolled in the 229 schools on Mayotte, children are only able to attend school in

half-days. Hospitals are also struggling to cope. A record 9,760 babies were delivered in

Mayotte’s hospital in 2017, of which 69 per cent were born to illegal migrants. France’s

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policy of droit du sol (birthright citizenship) means that those born in Mayotte’s hospital are

entitled to French nationality.

The Mayotte Hospital Centre was described by the Hospital Director in September 2018 as

being in ‘a situation of permanent crisis’. Health facilities are severely understaffed, which

has led to overworked medical staff repeatedly taking to strike action. French officials have

considered making the hospital a non-French territory in order to deprive those born there

of an automatic route to French citizenship. Medical professionals have, however, opposed

the idea, saying it will not stop desperate mothers from coming to Mayotte, and will merely

increase the number of women giving birth at home or in other dangerous situations on the

island.

In March 2018, residents launched a month-long concerted campaign of protests, strikes

and road blocks across Mayotte, with residents rounding up suspected illegal migrants and

taking them to the police. The protests were designed to attract the attention of Paris and

force the French authorities to address the situation in Mayotte more forcefully. Hachim, a

local protest leader, explained his frustration to Le Monde newspaper:

The Mahorais fought to “be French and be free”, for the values of the

Republic and, among these values, there is security. Today, security does

not exist in Mayotte. We cannot live normally anymore. Mayotte has

become an open-air Sangatte [refugee camp in Calais]. It is

unacceptable. And what bristles us is that the authorities in France do not

understand us.

The scale of the riots and the animosity directed towards French Government

representatives indicates the frustration felt by the Mahorais. Residents claim that while

Mayotte gained the status of a département, there has been a lack of tangible change.

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Claude-Valentin Marie, a sociologist at the French Institute for Demographic Studies,

explained that the Mahorais just want what those on mainland France take for granted:

‘They want to be like other French départements in terms of education, economic activity,

health and security… they no longer want to be the exception.’

Mayotte’s Foreign Office has been disrupted since the March protests and access to it

completely blocked after 31 July. The closure of the office resulted in people losing the right

to stay on Mayotte, the loss of access to medical care, broken employment contracts,

interrupted tertiary studies and training programmes due the non-processing of applications

and an inability to establish residency permits for foreigners who are not necessarily

Comorian or illegal. Protestors have also blocked access to health clinics. The Jacaranda

Health Clinic in the capital, Mamoudzou, has been repeatedly forced to close during October

2018, with protestors blocking Comorian patients from entering the clinic and the situation

often descending into violence. French Defender of Rights Jacques Toubon made a

statement against the blockades, stating that ‘every day that passes increases the decline of

the rule of law’ on Mayotte.

Government Response

Boosting the economies of both départements is essential to raising living standards across

Mayotte and La Réunion. In February 2017, the French Government passed a law for “real

equality” for overseas territories, aimed at reducing the disparities between the mainland

and overseas France and internal inequalities within the départements. This has led to the

establishment of regular Assises des Outre-mer, or Overseas Conferences, which aim to

involve the overseas départements in policy development. A series of meetings focusing on

overseas trade and the revitalisation of town centres were held in La Réunion on 16 October

2018 as part of the Assises du Commerce de l’Outre-mer. The meetings also discussed

economic reform taking into account the limited markets and low purchasing power of local

residents. Entrepreneur Nadine Hafidou, a member of the Mahorais delegation that

attended the conference, emphasised the value of hearing the experiences of other

départements, especially La Réunion: ‘Certainly, our territories are different but overseas

traders face common problems: logistics difficulties, [and] additional costs due to

remoteness and stock problems.’

Government efforts to contain illegal migration to Mayotte have centred primarily on the

deployment of border police and paramilitary gendarmerie personnel. In response to the

March protests and roadblocks, the Minister for Overseas Territories, Annick Girardin, made

a two-day visit to Mayotte. Ms Girardin announced the temporary deployment of an

additional sixty gendarmes, together with further, permanent, police reinforcements and

paramilitary gendarmerie forces. Ms Girardin also committed to prioritising health care

reform, announcing a 200-million-euro plan to modernise the Mayotte Hospital Centre.

The Foreign Office was able to re-open on the 11 October 2018. Residents and the inter-

union associations who blockaded the office remain indignant and have accused the French

administration of fuelling a “Comorian colonisation”. Mohamed Bacar, the Mayor of

Tsingonu, a commune in Mayotte, recognised the legitimacy of the grievances that drove

the blockade in a public statement in which he recalled their main demand: ‘The return of

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illegal Comorian nationals to the borders of their own country,’ and an end to the issuance

of residency permits to Comorian illegal immigrants.

Enhancing regional co-operation between France, Mayotte and Comoros is essential to

developing a more effective response to migration flows. The relationship between France

and Comoros is particularly strained over Mayotte, as Comoros still claims sovereignty over

the island. In June 2013, the Presidents of France and Comoros signed the “Paris Declaration

on Friendship and Co-operation between France and Comoros” to reinvigorate the bilateral

relationship. Political dialogue has been further strengthened by the creation of a “High Joint

Council” but controversy over Comorian migration to Mayotte has continued to cause

conflict. The French embassy in Moroni, the Comorian capital, decided in May to suspend

issuing visas to all Comorian nationals after the Comorian Government announced that it

would refuse to receive Comorians deported from Mayotte. Comoros Foreign Affairs

Minister, Souef Mohamed El-Amine, announced that Comoros will ‘refuse to kneel in front

of France’, and said the French visa decision ‘gives a clear answer to people who have been

fooling themselves by saying that France was a friendly country. It has no friends. It defends

its interests.’

Given the persistent disparities between Comoros and Mayotte, the geographical reality

that Mayotte and Anjouan are separated by a mere 70-kilometres, and that low salaries and

poor living conditions in Comoros are the main factors driving illegal migration to Mayotte,

developing effective policy responses has been difficult for the French and Mahorais

authorities. The only real long-term solution to countering illegal immigration is for the

health, educational and income levels across the Comorian islands to experience such

significant improvements that making the risky voyage to Mayotte is no longer worthwhile.

Situation in the Comoros

Comoros is ranked 165 out of 189 countries on the Human Development Index. With 45 per

cent of its population living below the poverty line, the Comoros falls into the UN category of

least developed countries. The World Bank’s 2018 poverty assessment shows that living

conditions in Comorian households have improved with poverty levels falling by over 10 per

cent since 2004. The report, however, underscores the uncertainty surrounding the ability to

sustain progress, owing to wide inequalities, particularly between rural and urban

households. The rural-urban disparity is largely attributable to the fact that rural households

earn less from their income stream, leading to persistent poverty and intergenerational

inequality. The report emphasised the lack of access to goods and basic services as a major

challenge for rural households.

Political and institutional crises have been sources of prolonged instability. Comoros has had

more than 20 coups or attempts to seize power since independence in 1975. The latest

political controversy was sparked in August 2018 by President Azali Assoumani moving to

extend presidential term limits and overhaul the system of rotating the presidency between

the three main islands. The decision met with protests and is likely to exacerbate political

instability. The authorities reportedly cut off water and power supplies as part of efforts to

quell the unrest, a response that is only likely to further contribute to migration to Mayotte

in search of better governance and living conditions.

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Revised in December 2017, the Comorian Government’s poverty reduction and growth

strategy (SCA2D) covers the 2017-21 period and aims to make the Comoros an emerging

country by 2030. Improving access to such services as piped water facilities, electricity and

health care centres, is a major priority. A five-year investment plan for 2016-21 places

special emphasis on infrastructure investments, particularly in the energy and roading

sectors. The strategy aims to leverage the country’s assets and latent comparative

advantages to increase productive employment and promote a more diversified,

competitive and formal economy. The national health policy for the period 2015-24 is driven

by the vision that ‘The Union of the Comoros should have an efficient health system that

enables the entire population, and especially the most vulnerable and impoverished, to gain

access to high-quality health care’. Comoros is one of the 19 priority destinations for French

foreign aid, and France provides health-sector assistance through a project financed by the

French Agency for Development (AFD). Reducing maternal and infant mortality has been

identified as a strategic priority.

The production of vanilla, ylang-ylang and cloves together account for 80 per cent of

Comorian exports and employ 45 per cent of the workforce, placing them at the centre of

the government’s agricultural policy, and making their promotion a top priority. More than

half of that workforce lives in poverty, however. In September 2016, the Comoros

Government established the National Office of Vanilla to promote the vanilla industry and

advocate for improved working conditions and skills development for workers.

Unemployment among Comorian youth is increasing and will worsen if economic growth

and diversification do not increase. Economic growth and poverty reduction relies on radical

improvements to the agricultural industry and the development of a strong private sector

that is able to generate greater numbers of productive jobs. While the Comorian

Government is attempting to implement economic reform, significant improvements to

health, educational and income levels are required.

The introduction of legislation targeting high living costs and poverty in France’s overseas

territories has been an important step towards addressing the many challenges faced by

Mayotte and La Réunion which must be overcome if the islands’ residents are to enjoy a

standard of living approaching that of the mainland. While the French Government has

tightened maritime security between Mayotte and the Comoros, without higher levels of

development across the Comorian islands, the flow of migrants to Mayotte is unlikely to

slow.

Given the continuing economic and political challenges in the Comoros, French aid plays an

important role in helping to increase equitable access to resources and healthcare, and to

strengthen the private and financial sectors. If, however, France is seen to be taking too

assertive a role in the affairs of its former colony, it could easily leave itself open to

accusations of neo-colonialism, an outcome that Paris will wish to avoid. Over the longer

term, a co-ordinated development programme agreed by the French and Comorian

Governments will be essential to boosting development levels, economic and educational

opportunities and health outcomes in the Comoros. Such changes, if effectively

implemented, will produce meaningful benefits for the citizens of both countries.

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