With the National Assembly to approve restrictions on ‘Jus Soli’ in Mayotte’s overseas territory, Minister of Justice suggests that the right to citizenship by birth should be questioned throughout France and head of government says that debate only this is “too limited”.
The same François Bayrou, leader of the French government, who a month ago generated controversy by saying that France is “flooded” of immigrants, suggested on Friday that the country should debate “which means being French,” a wide discussion about citizenship and, by drag, immigration. Two days earlier, when the fragile executive survived one and was able to approve the budget for 2025, French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin defended in the National Assembly amendments to the Constitution to end the automatic assignment of citizenship to those born in French territory.
But for François Bayrou, discussing only the right ‘jus solo’ (“soil right”) is “too limited.” Asked about Gérald Darmanin’s proposal by the RMC broadcaster, the head of government has previously suggested a broader national debate. “It is obvious that this issue has been fermenting over the years: what does it mean to be French? What rights are guaranteed? What duties are required? What advantages are obtained? What do we commit to when we become members of a national community? ”
Last Wednesday was not, only the day France finally managed to approve a budget for this year, was also the day when the deputies of Continental France voted to restrict ‘Jus Soli’ in Mayotte, an overseas territory In the Indian Ocean arms with a huge wave of immigration from the neighboring islands asres.
The situation has reached a new peak about a month ago, the passage of the Chido Tropical Cyclone, which left a trail of destruction in the Indian archipelagos and in nearby countries, such as Mozambique, and may have caused “tens of thousands of dead.” However, it has deeper and older roots that go back to the decolonization process in 1975.
This year, what is today the Republic of Mis, composed of the islands of Moheli, Anjouan and the great molest, colonized by the French since the nineteenth century, decided to become independent of France; On the contrary, 63% of Mayotte’s population voted in favor of remaining an integral part of France, in a referendum that was organized by Paris and whose result for questioning the “territorial integrity” of the entire archipelago.
Today, with a population of over 320,000 people, along with a large community of undocumented immigrants, many of them living in Lata neighborhoods, Mayotte is from afar, but the richest of the archipelago compared to poverty. Endemic in the neighboring islands, which, every year, leads many comrades to enter irregularly on the French island.
“Thousands and thousands of people come with the idea that if they have children there, they become French,” Darmanin said about Mayotte and other French overseas territories, such as French Guiana. “All this needs to be reconsidered.”
“To a large extent, a myth”
The Parliament reconsidered, voting to restrict ‘Jus Soli’ only in Mayotte and paved the way to a broader discussion, with the Minister of Justice to argue that the “soil right” must be rethought throughout the country, and beyond- sea.
“Today it would be in favor of the French people to decide on this issue during the 2027 presidential elections or in a referendum,” Darmanin said in the National Assembly. Criticisms were not long, including within the government itself. “What the French people expect from us are acts, not proposals for constitutional changes in the future,” said Education Minister Elisabeth Borne.
Not being certain if Darmanin’s idea will gain more real contours until the next one goes to the polls, the controversial statements of François Bayrou remain in the aftermath of Chido’s passage through last month, when the Prime Minister said the sensation That the country is being “flooded” of immigrants has grown inside and outside continental France, and that immigration “is only positive” if it is “proportional” to the size of the population. A statement that generated applause from the conservative and far-right bench, and criticism of the other political factions.
The question of ‘Jus Soli’ is less simple than it may seem at first glance, and this is particularly true in the French case. Unlike the United States, where this right is applied automatically (a law that the Trump administration is), the simple birth of a child in French territory does not ensure that they and their parents automatically become citizens of France. (And as the New York Times pointed out a week ago, in how migrations are “complicating” debates on the right to citizenship by birth vs. Lineage, Jus Soli vs. Jus sanguinis, even in the US case the right to first is not absolute.)
On a visit to Mayotte a year ago, when he was then Minister of Interior and Overseas Territories, “extremely strong measures”, including a constitutional revision and the end of the territorial visa, based on an idea that, then stressed experts in public law, ““ It is, to a large extent, a myth. ”
“In our nationality legislation (included in the Civil Code), the child must wait for 13 years and have a five -year proof of residence since he was 8 years old so that his parents can claim French nationality in his name ”, Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche, Jules Lepourre and Serge Slama Num Num. “This means that at best, a child born in France will only be French 13 years later. That is, only then can your parents benefit from a right of residence based on your French -child parents statute. ”
It was precisely with the French Civil Code in mind, in concrete article 2,493, that 47 Republican party deputies led to votes on Friday that it establishes new rules for obtaining French citizenship in Mayotte, providing for current legal provisions alone They apply “only if, at the date of birth, at least one parent has a regular residence in France, under the coverage of a residence permit, and uninterrupted for more than three months.”
Debates for realizing
Restrictions on the right to citizenship in Mayotte reflect a two -way question that many nickname neocolonialism in the French island territories. Last year, the case in the South Pacific, where state of emergency was imposed and where Paris sent 2,700 police officers and gendarmes To control mass protests that broke out after approval, 17,000 kilometers away from changes to the Constitution to allow people residing in the archipelago for ten or more years to vote for local elections and referendums.
Last month, during a visit to Mayotte in the aftermath of Chido, Emmanuel Macron also generated the wrath of places when, confronted by a inhabitant with the scarcity of drinking water on the island, which, if it were not France, “would be 10,000 times worse ”.
“You have just lived something terrible, everyone is fighting, regardless of skin color,” Macron told the crowd. “Don’t put people against each other […] Because you are happy to be part of France and because if they were not part of France, they would be 10,000 times worse. ” The images show that Macron responded to the comment of a inhabitant who accused him of having made that visit just to “say that everything is okay when everything is getting worse and worse” and at no time if he hears the woman discussing the status of Mayotte or your demography.
For Clémentine Autain, an influential local deputy, was a “neocolonialist speech, unworthy of a president.” For Marine Le Pen’s national regrouping (RN), the far right party that has also risen from popularity on Overseas Island, promises to end unregulated immigration, it was an opportunity to gain even more sympathies. “Contrary to what Emmanuel Macron says, Mayotte is being treated differently and Mahorals have every reason to complain.”
Two years ago, in the face of increasing irregular arrivals and crime in Mayotte, France launched Operation Wuambushu to dismantle slums and expel people in clandestine situation. The militarized operation opened a new war front with the Republic of Mis, which from the French overseas territory, and generated criticism inside and outside the territory. “The violent military operation of deportation of irregular migrants in Mayotte raises concerns in the context of the diplomatic crisis with the comres and highlights the human rights violations committed by France,” a month after the Wuambushu starts up.
Official data on emigration to Mayotte showed, in 2012, that between 7,000 and 12,000 people died or disappeared between 1995 and this year in crossing between the asres and the French overseas territory, which, at the time, made it the deadly Migratory route of the world. “Since then, no official number has been made public,” the ECRE said two years ago, but periodically local media reported more victims of Kwassa-Kwassas, small traditional fishing boats from the sinks that are overcrowded.
Estimates cited by the same non-governmental organization point out that about half of the more than 300,000 inhabitants of Mayotte are not of French nationality, although one third of foreigners was born on the island, where the right to citizenship by birth will be, from now on , even more restricted. The question still unanswered is whether, in a Europe, more and more immigration is closed, this right will be abolished throughout France. For François Bayrou, this is just the tip of the iceberg. “What does it mean to be French?” The prime minister asked for days, stressing that this discussion “cannot be postponed forever.” But first one must define in which molds will be regarded.
