Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Maps
- Tables
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Overseas France
- Chapter 2 The Colonial Heritage
- Chapter 3 Decolonisation and Institutional Change since 1940
- Chapter 4 Population and Society
- Chapter 5 Economic Change: From Production to Consumption
- Chapter 6 Culture, Identity and National Consciousness
- Chapter 7 The Shape of Politics in the DOM-TOMs
- Chapter 8 Towards Independence?
- Chapter 9 The DOM-TOMs and the Wider World
- Chapter 10 The Ties that Bind
- Notes
- Bibliographical Essay
- Glossary
- Index
Chapter 4 - Population and Society
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Maps
- Tables
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Overseas France
- Chapter 2 The Colonial Heritage
- Chapter 3 Decolonisation and Institutional Change since 1940
- Chapter 4 Population and Society
- Chapter 5 Economic Change: From Production to Consumption
- Chapter 6 Culture, Identity and National Consciousness
- Chapter 7 The Shape of Politics in the DOM-TOMs
- Chapter 8 Towards Independence?
- Chapter 9 The DOM-TOMs and the Wider World
- Chapter 10 The Ties that Bind
- Notes
- Bibliographical Essay
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
MIGRATION FLOWS have long characterised the DOM-TOMs and have contributed, in most places, to ethnically very diverse populations. Traditionally much of this migration has been towards the DOM-TOMs, but more recently it has become oriented to France. In the post-war years, migration has increased in volume and distance and become more complex in pattern and purpose, while economic change has stimulated a substantial redistribution of population within the DOM-TOMs; this is most marked in high rates of urbanisation. The mixing of populations has led to race and ethnicity assuming social and political significance, in terms of access to land and other resources, and migration itself has assumed political dimensions. In some places rapid population growth has led to considerable pressure on often limited resources, but more often it has hastened migration. Changes in population composition and distribution have thus played a substantial role in the evolution of the economy and society of the DOM-TOMs. These themes in the demographic history of the DOM-TOMs — immigration into and emigration from these regions, the cohabitation and, sometimes, the intermingling of the different ethnic groups, and the changes in population structures — reveal many of the specific characteristics of the DOM-TOMs, and also clarify the origins of a number of social tensions which exist in the French outre-mer.
In the Antilles drastic population changes were apparent in pre-European times.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- France's Overseas FrontierDépartements et territoires d'outre-mer, pp. 95 - 128Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992