France Restricts Birthright Citizenship in Mayotte

French lawmakers sparked outrage on Tuesday after they passed a bill to restrict birthright citizenship only for Mayotte, a French territory in the Indian Ocean that has seen a surge in migration from its poorer neighbor, Comoros, France 24 reported.

Since 2018, children born in Mayotte needed to have a parent who had been a legal resident of the archipelago for at least three months at the time of birth to be granted French citizenship. Now, both parents need to have legally lived in Mayotte for at least a year, with exceptions made for single parents.

The process will differ from mainland France, where a child born to foreign parents can receive French nationality at the age of 13 if they have lived in France for at least five years.

The new measure was prompted by migration from the Comoros Islands. Mayotte, a French archipelago of about 320,000 people, attracts a large number of migrants from Comoros who travel there seeking economic opportunities.

According to French data, a 2019 study showed that half of the population consisted of foreigners, with one-third of them born in Mayotte.

While the bill does not change the “right of soil” or birthright citizenship, for people in the rest of France, leftist parties criticized the bill and said it might pave the way for further restrictions on the constitutional right.

The French far-right has made no mystery of wanting to review the right of soil.

“The prospect of obtaining French nationality is an undeniable factor in irregular migration” to Mayotte, said Philippe Gosselin of the far-right Republican Party, who proposed the bill. French Prime Minister François Bayrou was also supportive, suggesting that a similar measure could be created for Guiana, another French overseas territory, according to Le Monde.

French justice minister Gerald Darmanin said birthright citizenship granted by the French constitution should come under review entirely, possibly in a referendum.