Abstrakt
While the citizenship of the European Union encompasses a great diversity of citizens (workers/inactive, continental/outermost), practices show that not all EU citizens benefitting from the fundamental right of freedom of movement are on the same footing. The paper's aim is to better understand the phenomena of failure of integration of Mahoran people residing in Réunion island.
It will raise up the question of complaints of local population viewing Mahoran as abusers of rights (benefit tourism) or as a potential threat to public policy. As local discrimination towards Mahoran is very similar to that of EU citizens from Roma origin on the European continent, the paper will first compare these two categories of migrants.
It will investigate then the accuracy of their being onsidered as second-class migrants. Finally, it will question the practical openness and adaptability of the right of freedom of movement of persons to specific EU citizens with visible cultural and physical differences as Mahoran and Roma migrants.