Migration pressure, insecurity, water restrictions… the Mayotte archipelago is the poorest department in France and faced with immense difficulties, even before the passage of the cyclone which devastated it.
Immigration clandestine. Mayotte is located at the entrance to the Mozambique Channel, 1,700 km from Reunion and 350 km from Madagascar. The archipelago is located less than 70 km from Anjouan, one of the three large islands making up the Union of the Comoros, an independent state since 1975, which still claims sovereignty over Mayotte. This proximity facilitates illegal immigration from the Comoros, one of the poorest countries in the world. Most often arriving on board large traditional fishing boats, the kwassa-kwassa, Comorian immigrants and nationals of many African countries make up almost half of the department’s population. Between 2023, some 22,000 border deportations were carried out, compared to just over 25,000 the previous year.
Uncontrolled demographics. Mayotte is the French department where population growth is the highest, ahead of Guyana. This 375 square kilometer area had 321,000 inhabitants on 1is January 2024, according to an estimate from the National Institute of Statistics (Insee). But, according to a report from the regional chamber of accounts for 2022, “many clues” suggest that the population is “highly underestimated” by official assessments. According to INSEE, almost half of the inhabitants of Mayotte do not have French nationality, but a third of foreigners were born there. The population of the archipelago projected by INSEE by 2050 is between 440,000 and 760,000 inhabitants, the main determinant being the evolution of migratory flows.
Endemic poverty. In 2022, only 30% of 15-64 year olds had a job in Mayotte. According to INSEE, 42% of the population lives on less than 160 euros per month. More than three quarters of residents are below the national poverty line. And about a third of the habitat is “informal”often made up of unsanitary shanty towns. The French archipelago, however, appears to be a rich territory compared to its immediate neighbors, the Comoros and Madagascar. The inhabitants of Mayotte are three times more victims of theft with or without violence than those of mainland France, according to data from INSEE covering 2018 and 2019. The population of the archipelago is also subject to severe restrictions on drinking water, consequence of repeated episodes of drought and a glaring infrastructure deficit.
