La citoyenneté dans l’outre-mer français
Olivier Gohin
On the basis of contesting or overcoming the nation-state, new forms of ‘accessory’citizenship have emerged or are emerging to the extent that holding this status
supposes first and foremost that the primary status of French citizenship has been
acquired and remains so. Yet, one can see that the two forms of accompanying citizenship
provided for by law, that is citizenship of the European Union and citizenship of New
Caledonia, are not equivalent. The first, which may be situated in a federalist discourse,
allows citizens of the Union to enjoy supplementary rights, notably the right to vote and
to stand in local elections of a member state in which he or she resides but does not
possess the nationality; the second, which is part of a communitarian discourse, conflicts
with French citizenship in that it deprives those French citizens who are not citizens of
New Caledonia of political rights which they hold as a result of their French citizenship.
In this way, therefore, accessory citizenship is contradictory in its object and its effect.
If it is considered that citizenship, along with many other hazy notions, is both a ‘factor
of unity’as well as a ‘vector of exclusion’, it is possible to retain, in the present context
of overseas France, a form of integration via French citizenship and exclusion via the
citizenship of New Caledonia.
• L’INTÉGRATION PAR LA CITOYENNETÉ FRANÇAISE
— Citoyenneté française et universalité du suffrage
— Citoyenneté française et unité nationale
• L’EXCLUSION PAR LA CITOYENNETÉ DE LA NOUVELLE-CALÉDONIE
— Citoyenneté de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et rupture communautariste
— Citoyenneté de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et ségrégation en droits