Students in the French overseas department of Mayotte are returning to school this week, a month-and-a-half after a devastating cyclone leveled homes and infrastructure on the Indian Ocean islands.
Mayotte, a former French colony, was already the poorest part of France and on nearly every social indicator, one of the worst-off parts of the European Union. Reconstruction efforts now underway are an opportunity to finally address residents’ pressing needs.
Many students are returning to schools that remain heavily damaged by the cyclone. French authorities have also long failed to provide adequate access to safe water and sanitation to people living in Mayotte.
French authorities, including President Emmanuel Macron, have suggested that the official response to the natural disaster will include a crackdown on irregular, or undocumented, migration. Some politicians have misused the response needs as an opportunity to scapegoat migrants for Mayotte’s social troubles.
Estimates, possibly overstated, suggest nearly one-third of Mayotte’s population is undocumented. Most migrants come from the Comoros, a country less than 70 kilometers away that shares close cultural, linguistic, and historical ties with Mayotte. The islands are also seeing an increasing number of asylum seekers from other African countries.
Much of Mayotte’s undocumented population lives in informal settlements on the main island, Grande-Terre. Authorities destroyed some dwellings in these informal settlements during clearance operations in 2023 and 2024 that were billed as public safety initiatives to combat irregular migration, insecurity, and slums.
Though the settlements were hit particularly hard by the cyclone, early reports suggested initial aid efforts neglected these areas.
While the state’s immediate response has focused on rebuilding and social assistance, immigration and other sensitive issues are expected to be part of a second bill to be presented by the French government in or around March.
A proposal from the right-wing party Les Républicains to limit the droit du sol, the principle of citizenship by birth in French territory, will also be debated in the National Assembly on February 6. The justice and interior ministers both strongly support this measure.
Insecurity and poor sanitary conditions in Mayotte are pressing concerns, but demonizing migrants is abusive and counterproductive. Moreover, it ignores France’s failure to improve health and education outcomes for people living in Mayotte as an enduring legacy of colonialism.
As they help people recover from the cyclone, French authorities should finally move to ensure the economic and social rights of everybody in Mayotte, on an equal basis as those in mainland France.
