The Newest French Department

A piece that I wrote about Mayotte was picked up by the World Policy Journal for their online blog. Check it out!

MAMOUDZOU—Last week, France welcomed Mayotte, a small island between Madagascar and continental Africa, into its fold of overseas departments. The tiny nation in the Indian Ocean becomes the 101st department of this kind. It will now be fully absorbed into the French governing system: abiding under the same laws and reaping the same benefits—tax, social, civil—that exist in mainland France.