On 19th March 1946, nearly 100 years after the recommendations of Victor Schoelcher, the French National Assembly adopted the so-called “assimilation” law, which transformed the “Four Old” colonies (Reunion Island, Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guyana) into French departments.
This is how Reunion Island came to be a French overseas department (DOM)
From this event onwards, Reunion Island has had a Regional Council and a General Council. All texts concerning the nation apply to the island, although the law has foreseen some adaptations. Reunion Island has 24 communes and 47 cantons. Five deputies and three senators represent the island in the French parliament and an advisor represents the island in the Economic and Social Council.
The Prefecture is in Saint Denis and there are three Sub-Prefectures in Saint Pierre, Saint Paul and Saint Benoît. This new status brought a certain degree of economic wealth to the island, but the social situation only progressed slowly, and was intercepted by a succession of numerous social conflicts, especially during the fifties and sixties.
In 1963, the French government created the BUMIDOM (the Office of migrations from French overseas departments), in order to alleviate the region of its demographic growth and ever-increasing unemployment. The annual departure of a few thousand Reunion Island locals who moved to metropolitan France in order to take up adjunct positions in the public sector (Post Office, hospitals, various administrations) provided a temporary solution, although the heart of the problem was not being dealt with. Reunion Island is not only completely French since its departmentalisation (1946), but also part of the European Union following the Treaty of Rome (1957).
The island shares the status of “Région ultrapériphérique” (member of the European Union, far away from Europe) with the Azores, the Canary Islands, Madeira and the other French overseas departments. Since 1989, the island benefits from the ‘Programme of Options specific to the remoteness and insularity of French Overseas Departments’ (POSEIDOM). Thanks to this programme the island has access to European Funds for Regional Development (FEDER) since 1975, to European Social Funds (FSE) and to European Orientation and Agricultural Guarantee Funds (FEOGA-Orientation).
In 1986, France joined the Commission of the Indian Ocean, in the name of the department of Reunion Island and the Region-Reunion.
Therefore, Reunion Island became a major player concerning regional cooperation, which is dealt with by the Commission of the Indian Ocean (COI). It works together with the Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius and the Comores. It was not until 1968 that Mauritius received its independence from the United Kingdom.
Also Rodrigues manifested its reluctance to this independence, it remained attached to the Republic of Mauritius. A few politicians from Reunion Island have put forward propositions to the French government and the National Assembly for the bi-departmentalisation of Reunion Island.
They hope to rectify the imbalance between the north and the south of the department, as the decision-making establishments are centred around the main town of Saint Denis, in the north of the island.
For the moment, the French government pushes back the idea, which would burden the administrative structures and increase the public costs during the creation of a possible second department.