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Paper short abstract:

Mayotte, an outermost region since 2014, is fully confronted with European educational and normative influences as well as with difficulties linked to migration issues. This island context, as complex as it is unique, particularly affects young people.

Paper long abstract:

The situation of Mayotte, as an outermost region of Europe, questions the consequences of the decentralization of a European border at the heart of the Comorian archipelago, creating an administrative, political, educational and even social border. The specific nature of old and persistent migratory flows, criminalized by the French State which, by concentrating its efforts on the fight against illegal immigration, disregards the law and the fundamental rights of minors, leads us to question the consequences of this context on the youth. The contours of this atypical situation which sees families split up on both sides of the border, under European domination, therefore lead to question the brutality and the singularity of the juvenile migratory routes; the upheaval of educational schemes in the context of structural change; the complex relationship to otherness, to the "near stranger"; and the violation of the human rights of minors from immigrant backgrounds. By focusing here on this part of youth, with heterogeneous profiles, we will highlight the phenomena of isolation, non-schooling, wandering as well as the relationship to identity among these uprooted young people. Ultimately, their paths reveal spheres of entrenched exclusions that we will analyze.