Abstract
This chapter underlines the composition of the population and the contribution of immigration in the transformation, the size and the spatial distribution of the population. It also covers the migrants’ choices of integration and/or reintegration as a driver of urban settlement and mobility in the urban structure of French Guyana. As a result, the chapter shows the impacts of urbanization and the population re-composition in terms of redesigning urban sectors’ local political maps in some municipalities in the Cayenne agglomeration, the capital city of French Guyana.
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Notes
- 1.
Among different other immigrant communities from other regions of the world (particularly the European Union), some Caribbean and Latin American countries form the bulk of the foreign populations in French Guyana. They have differently contributed to the general French Guyanese population growth. For example, in the mid of the decade 2000, countries (among others) such as Suriname, Haiti and Brazil are respectively accounted for 17,654 immigrants or 37.9%; 14,143 immigrants or 30.4%; and 7171 immigrants or 15.4%. Also, Guyana (former British Guyana) has 2372 immigrants or 5.1%; the Dominican Republic counts 673 immigrants or 1.4%.
- 2.
For example, from 1974 to 2002, French Guyana faced an average rate of change of population due to the combined natural balance and the migration balance of the [population. The decades 1974–1982 showed an increase of 3.87%; 1982–1990 stood out an evolution of 5.79%; 1990–1999 pointed out 3.57%; and for the year 2002 a number of 3.40%. Aside from some slight reduction, high immigration and natural population growth severely impact the demographic explosion in French Guyana.
- 3.
Gorgeon Catherine, “Gestion urbanistique d’une immigration – Le cas de l’île de Cayenne”, p. 164, Université d’Aix-Marseille III, Institut d’Etudes politiques d’Aix-en-Provence, Juin 1985.
- 4.
The foreign population by age and sex ranges in French Guyana is relatively young (men and women), and susceptible to procreate. For example, in 2003, “less than 20 years old in the population are accounted for 18224 inhabitants; from 20 years old to 59 count 26583 people”. These data simply mean that the French state has to do its best to integrate the often new components of the population with migrant decent.
- 5.
For example, the spatial redistribution of the population in the Cayenne agglomeration impacts the political districts in diverse communes. Human mobility can be observed and measured through some number for the different communities. Between 1990 and 1999, for example, 971 Haitian immigrants moved from Cayenne to the nearby commune of Matoury, and other 150 to Remire-Montjoly, another municipality within the Cayenne agglomeration. This is the same pattern that other communities followed such as the Brazilians who moved from Cayenne to Matoury (135) and Remire-Montjoly (118). This urban mobility involved also immigrants from Guyana (former British), Suriname and others….
- 6.
Conan Eric, Pourquoi la Guyane craque? L’EXPRESS, 9/12/99, p. 79.
- 7.
Examples, in the end of the year 2000, 22 Brazilians have been counted in the commune of Apatou, while in Cayenne registered 6121. In the commune of Maripasoula, 26 Haitians are numbered, while in Cayenne and Kourou respectively 6244 and 2139 are recorded. Generally speaking, all the immigrant communities follow the same unequal spatial distribution pattern in French Guyana.
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Zéphirin, R. (2020). Composition of the Population and Its Spatial Distribution. In: Political Demography and Urban Governance in French Guyana. Palgrave Pivot, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3832-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3832-2_3
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