Paper short abstract:

The Mauritians descend from migrants settled on the island from different countries, in different periods and ways. As labour migrants are a crucial element of the Mauritian ethnicized economy, the new migrant workers challenge the balance between migration, labor market and ethnicity.

Paper long abstract:

Mauritius has always been an island of migration all along its history. Its population is made up by descendants of migrant people from different countries, following different patterns of settlement which resulted in a system where migration, labor market and ethnicity were strongly and deeply intertwined.

After Independence, the economic miracle of 1980s increased the opportunities for social mobility, but did not suppressed the ethnicized social division of labor which has long prevailed since the colonial period. New waves of migrant workers were brought approximately from the same regions as in the past (China, India, Bangladesh and Madagascar), as labour migrants remain a crucial element of the current Mauritian economy.

Today Mauritius is considered a successful example of development and multiculturalism. Mauritian identity construction processes depend on complex interactions between global, regional, local contexts to which the increasing flows of migration in contemporary globalized economy may represent a challenge.

What is the relationship of Mauritius with current immigration? Does Mauritian multiculturalism facilitate immigrant integration? Does immigration reshape Mauritian ethnic landscape? How and to what extent do migrant workers identity and culture interplay with Mauritian identity and history? Do the drivers of the colonial system are still present in one form or another?

These are some of the questions I try to address using data collected during my fieldwork in Mauritius.