[maeln]

Mayotte is a French oversea territory. And like almost all french oversea territory it is very poor, but less than the average neighbor countries leading to a lot of immigration which are difficult to control (even though Mayotte is an Island which make it a bit more controllable than Guyana for example). This usually end up in a increasing poverty and unemployment, leading to criminality, aging infrastructure, and public services not being able to handle the demand.

Like a lot of oversea territory, it has some beautiful landscape, but is crippled by the problems above. Living there is very difficult.

EDIT: Note also that I am not blaming immigrant. The problem being that adding more poor people in an already poor territory doesn't solve the problem of poverty. And France unwillingness to treat its oversea territory fairly and really invest in them is the main root of the problem.

[seren]

The specific issue with Mayotte is that the other half of the archipelago has chosen to remain independent [1].

So on a very small territory you have a third world country, Comoros, and a piece of the European Union, where, even if it is not on par with continental Europe, has a much higher quality of life.

So there is a quite large influx of immigrants from Comoros, and this is hard to manage for such a small island.

[1] In 1974, France organized a referendum for self-determination in the archipelago in which the population except in Mayotte voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence. Following the unilateral declaration of independence in 1975, France maintained sovereignty over Mayotte. The three remaining islands formed the Etat Comorian, which later became the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoro Islands.

[donkeyd]

This sounds a lot like Haiti. I was there on vacation for a couple of weeks. In general, Haiti dirty and poor, but there were some truly beautiful places. Unfortunately, only a few of them are actually available if you aren't there on either a cruise, or are friends/connected with the local 'bourgeoisie'.

One of the places that stuck with me the most is Kay Winnie in Seguin. It's a house, built by a man who moved there from the city in order to protect one of the last forests in Haiti. He grows and plants saplings to grow the forest. Unfortunately, you need to hike quite far or drive through incredibly rough terrain to get there.

[starbeast]

Recently read 'The Comedians' by Graham Greene, which is set in Haiti during the rise of Duvalier. Those people have been through some terrible shit for a long time now.

edit - is worth reading - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/133399.The_Comedians

[donkeyd]

> Those people have been through some terrible shit for a long time now.

Yup. And having been there and having spoken to locals and people from the UN, MSF, etc. I don't feel like it's going to change soon. A lot of the economy is driven by NGO's and that money all ends up in the pockets of the rich home, hotel and restaurant owners. Meanwhile the poor sell each other mangos and meat in the streets. It's like there are two completely separate economies. And whenever a politician wants to make a change, tribalism seems to end up ruining it because (often realistic) fear of preferential treatment of some groups.

[starbeast]

>A lot of the economy is driven by NGO's and that money all ends up in the pockets of the rich home, hotel and restaurant owners. Meanwhile the poor sell each other mangos and meat in the streets.

Sounds eerily similar to the situation things rapidly deteriorate from at the start of the book, which was set 60 years ago now.

[gambiting]

As it is part of France, do people there technically have EU citizenship?

[openplatypus]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_member_state_territori...

> Mayotte is the newest of the five overseas departments having changed from an overseas collectivity, with OCT status, on 31 March 2011. It became an outermost region and thus part of the EU on 1 January 2014.[8]

[maeln]

Yes. Some of the oversea territory had a weird status in the past (see openplatypus comment), but nowadays they are almost all DROM which mean, it is part of France, and being born there makes you French (and makes you a EU citizen).

[raverbashing]

"Fun fact" this doesn't happen to some of the UKs crown dependencies like: the Isle of Man or Channel Islands

(though they're allegedly leaving so it won't matter too much anymore)

[Retric]

The UK situation with its dependencies is very complex. I found this short video helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10

[raverbashing]

Yes that video is excellent. (Also: "with its dependencies")