More Trouble in France: Mayotte Riots
Why did France keep so many overseas dependencies or counties, whatever the cost? One explanation is that they have been part of the French destiny for several centuries, or have been partially settled by European French. Another is that when the decisions were made to keep them in between 1945 and 1970, the cost seemed quite low both in financial and political terms. Geopolitical interests were also at stake: in order to become a nuclear power, France needed Polynesia as a testing ground. In order to become a spatial power, France needed the Kourou launch site in Guyane. And controlling hundreds of islands and islets all over the world means controlling huge exclusive maritime zones around them: France is second in the world in this respect with 11,035,000 square kilometers, just behind the United States.
In order to keep such an empire in a postcolonial and politically correct age, one has to fully integrate the overseas realms in legal terms, or at least overflow them with benefits and privileges. The cost, for France, has been very high, and is getting higher year after year.
It does not stop there. Most DOM’s are seen as shortcuts to Mainland France by potential illegal immigrants from the rest of the world. Day after day, French-speaking Haitians and English, Spanish, or Portuguese-speaking Caribbeans or Latin Americans infiltrate the West Indian DOM’s or Guyane for that purpose. The same holds true for many Africans who flock to Indian Ocean France and especially to Mayotte, which is both geographically closer and more poorly managed than Reunion Island, one of the oldest — and ethnically most balanced — French overseas territories. According to Bernard Lugan, one of the best French experts on Africa, pregnant women from the Comoros, Madagascar, East Africa, or even the Democratic Republic of the Congo come to Mayotte to give birth. Under French law, any child born on French soil is granted citizenship. And all his or her relatives may be allowed, under family reunion dispensations, to join him and live with him on French soil as well.
The major case against the French politically correct neo-empire is that it doesn’t work well even in the overseas territories. There were riots in the French Caribbean islands in the late 2000s because the locals had a feeling that they were too far behind the French average in per capita income. And now, there is Mayotte.
“Under French law, any child born on French soil is granted citizenship. And all his or her relatives may be allowed, under family reunion dispensations, to join him and live with him on French soil as well.”
I thought we were the only suckers who did this. Seems to be working out as badly for the French as it is for us. There are lots of women coming from Mexico and other poor countries to have their kids here in the United States just so the children can become American citizens. Naturally, the rest of the family follows these kids into the country illegally, causing huge problems for local public school systems and government aid programs. Allowing children that are born here to become citizens was a law that was created right after the slaves were freed after the Civil War, and I think we’ve come a long way since then. I’m not really sure we need to have this law anymore and it is very, very, unfair to the immigrants who do come here legally and go through the immigration process. This law has been given little publicity lately and it is interesting to see that it is as destructive to other countries as it is to ours.
Dear Dr. Bones,
Make a memorandumb of this one, please, sir.
Interesting to find a Whight Guardist attemptin’ to recycle ‘Caucasian’ as a way of referrin’ to the crux an’ quiddity of Western Sieve.
“¡Ah, Paris — the Tiflis, the Erevan, the Bakou, even, of the West!”
Happy days.
An 11th-14th Century-peaked moronic religious peoples demanding evermore funds from the very Westerners they loathe, hate and don’t assimilate nor intend to whatsoever. Sounds familiar.
Sadly Mr. Gurfunkiel, the French bourgeoisie government will instill more welfare/handouts to appease the Mayotte ‘residents’ in the name of ‘racial’/'social’/'economic’-type ‘justice’ in the pursuit of ‘equanimity’.
The same do-nothing but comply with the scourge.. err ‘downtrodden’ is a similar response the ’05 France riots effecting Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Cambrai, Nice, Nord etc., (dozens of regions) incorporated.
Sadly the ’07 ‘Val-d’Oise riot was more of the same response. 130+ policemen injured and many public buildings burned.
Like the ’05 riots, the French authorities didn’t give detailed accounts of the ’07 riots. Quite a slap in the face of the injured policemen, French citizens though a big ‘thumbs up’ to this thuggery.
Maybe the US ought to try this. Free health care and all those other beneits. And better cheese. What could go wrong?
“insistence,” not “insistance”
“the French authorities didn’t give detailed accounts” … distasteful stuff in France is always “hidden” so as not to tarnish its image. Try finding statistics (details) of suicides, child abductions, mental illness, gun crimes by immigrants, etc etc.
Popping the Utopian bubble is a no no … oligarchs reign though.
I always try to remind myself of this by using the WYSNIWIG – What You See Is NOT What You Get. Palacial gold-covered buildings in Paris says it all – ah the longing for the old daze!
Right you are, Sir.
Gee, the inherent dynamic of government freebies married to the innate aggressiveness of Islam has produced riots! Whoda thunk it?
Le president de la France,
Up to his old song ‘n dance:
He jiggles his ass
In a fanfare of gas,
Voila toot! and shits in his pants.
So basically it’s unrest about insufficient social welfare benefits being paid out to the French Muslim version of Puerto Rico.
I don’t see what could possibly go wrong with this arrangement.
I must profess my ignorance. I didn’t know France had its own Puerto Rico.
And not just one PR, but many; though I wonder that when the entire system collapses, what will all of those “Little France’s” do?
Hey, don’t rain on my joy of seeing this poetic blowback on French political correctness.
Thanks for that interesting story. It once again illustrates the con man/rube relationship between the West and the Third World, a relationship liberals deny because they think everyone is ‘nice.’
Until such time as we can again afford to care for immigrants that arrive in the US, all immigration should cease, excepting genocide victims such as those who are Christian living among muslims. Any muslims seeking sharia law in this country or are affiliated with the muslim brotherhood need to be deported, as they are the enemy within.The battle lines are being drawn,and you’d best pick
the side your on.
France is currently #64 (that’s a long way from the top)in the world, as an “economically free” country, according to the Heritage Foundation’s “economic” freedom index. Essentially; France has regulated itself and spent itself into an enormous hole. Yet, French people are clueless (in general) about the position of their country … when they realize the severity of the problem, it will be a major shock … unless a miracle occurs.
Somebody please tell me how in the hell a country that is in such tough shape can have ANY credibility in the world community when it comes to “solving” any European “crisis”?
Hmmm. Now you saying the US doesn’t have “territories” outside the 50-states? How about Puerto Rico, American Virgin Islands, and American Samoa? I’m quite sure there are more in the Pacific, even if they are uninhabited. Sooo, France isn’t alone in Transoceanic governance.
Didn’t the Vietnam war originally start as an attempt by France to hold on to one of their territories, ‘temporarily’ abandoned after the Japanese invasion, being pushed back by the locals?
Thanks for this informative account. The WSJ has 2 articles on the state of French fiscal health and the likelihood of solving its debt problems. The government appears to be elitist. In addition, their debt is threatened with downgrading. Both France and Germany are the major players in bailing out the various bankrupt countries in the EU, but France appears to be in pretty bad shape itself.
This article is very informative to those in the U.S. who assumed France had done what England did after WWII, because France was in worse shape than England. England worked to remove its overseas holdings, a common-sense response to being bankrupt after fending off the Nazis. The future of France looks worse than ever. Hayek was right – the end of the road to Utopia is Serfdom.