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Abstract
As a small island African nation, Mauritius is famed for its economic success, democratic governance and political stability. The Mauritian government recently embarked on a migration scheme geared towards attracting 'high net worth' migrants to the country. The scheme offers foreigners the possibility of obtaining permanent residence and naturalizing as citizens under specifically designed investment and residential programmes devised to attract private investment. While it is undeniable that this scheme has brought considerable foreign direct investment into the country, it has also caused discontent among the local population. Using media reports and interviews of key stakeholders in the press as well as data gathered from semistructured interviews of key stakeholders, this paper examines the implications of the long term and often, permanent presence of 'high net worth' migrants for the country. Public debate on this matter includes issues such as culture clash and diminished access to the beach for Mauritian citizens. Moreover, given the smallness of the country and the fact that land is already scarce, there is fear that facilities granted to foreigners to purchase property will have inflationary consequences and make property unaffordable to the local population.
Keywords: Mauritius; investor migration; permanent resident Scheme; integrated resorts scheme, real estate scheme, invest hotel scheme.
Introduction
The island of Mauritius of about 720 square miles lies in the South West of the Indian Ocean. Migration has always formed part of the history of Mauritius and continues to play a major role in the development of the country. The French ruled the island from 1715 until the British took in 1810 and Mauritius became independent in 1968. Mauritius does not have an indigenous population and the French were the first permanent settlers and landowners. Slaves were brought from East and West Africa to work in the sugar cane plantations. Following the abolition of slavery, cheap labour was sourced from India in the form of indentured labour. Chinese migrants also came to the island, initially as indentured workers and later as merchants and traders. The different groups of migrants contributed to the diversity of the current population such that Mauritius has become one of the most ethnically heterogeneous nations (Srebrenik, 2002: 277).
Mauritian society is a highly stratified plural society which at one time, revolved...