In this book the geographer Frédéric Piantoni explores migration and population movement as factors in the appropriation of the land of French Guiana. He shows how the planned migrations of the colonial period were used by France to gain possession of the territory. He then turns his attention to the basin of the Maroni river where the Bushinenge have created a zone operating outside national power and which may be viewed as the sole Guyanese territory within the region. Finally this book throws light on the issues migration raises today for the development of French Guiana.

Analysis of interregional and international population movements shows that each of the three pôles in French Guiana operates on its own and that there is very little movement between them. The assimilationist model is said to have prevented French Guiana from becoming integrated within its region by reinforcing its status as a Northern enclave in the South. But though appropriated by mainland France, the territory is not integrated within that either, as evidenced by the Framework Law for Overseas France (loi d’orientation pour l’outre-mer) and its status as an ultra-peripheral region of Europe. French Guiana is a territory that has difficulty in integrating a larger space (be that Latin America or France).

This book is a particularly interesting read given the current debate about changes to the status of French Guiana.