Vanuatu citizenship as an example?

Hello everyone,

The APROFED association is getting back to you this weekend following news from our Vanuatu neighbors on the topic of citizenship that could echo the one that is to be implemented today in New Caledonia as part of the future agreement.

Indeed, the new Vanuatu government elected since February 2025 has presented a reform plan aimed in particular at ensuring that only Vanuatuese who have been present on the island for at least 3 generations can stand for election to occupy elected positions at both provincial and national level (see Electoral reform causes controversy in Vanuatu ). New arrivals, naturalized, cannot access these positions. Vanuatu thus distinguishes nationality (international law) and citizenship (local law).

As a reminder, the Vanuatu constitution also provides in its article 57, paragraph 2, that only citizens of Vanuatu can be appointed to public office (cf. _1__Constitution ).

These two proposals are exactly what the association is demanding for New Caledonia.

Although citizenship is mentioned several times in the Noumea Accord in order to be established , allowing the people of origin to constitute with the men and women who live there a human community affirming its common destiny . (cf. Accord on New Caledonia signed in Noumea on May 5, 1998 – Légifrance ), it is clear today that this is still not the case.

This is due to the fact that, as the agreement specifies, this could eventually change into nationality and that this would also potentially lead, as with our neighbours in Vanuatu, to the exclusion of people from outside the territory, particularly mainland French nationals, from certain jobs, which is unthinkable for France.

The State’s rectification of the law on local employment in New Caledonia is the perfect example. The articles of the Caledonian association ALDE-NC and the report of MP LeBreton on this subject also demonstrate this (see What are overseas universities for? – ALDENC ; A review of the law on local employment that is questionable – ALDENC ; A law on local employment that is not so restrictive – ALDENC ; Local employment – ​​a copy to be reviewed – ALDENC )

However, the APROFED association points out that if citizenship is perceived as a potential risk of exclusion for some, it is precisely because the control bodies ensuring that discrimination is avoided have never been put in place or actually functioned (see Ineffective control bodies – ALDENC ).

The association also points out that citizenship would also allow local representatives to manage the territory’s specific powers autonomously and as closely as possible to the population, something that Paris again does not want. The possibility of rejecting Caledonian laws known as “country laws” via the Council of State or Constitutional Council, on powers that are specific to New Caledonia, clearly demonstrates that there is only one law, that of the French State, and only one citizenship, namely French.

The so-called existence of a Caledonian citizenship today, demonstrated by the presence of several electoral bodies allowing some to be able to vote in certain elections and not in others, is once again a decoy . Many have recalled that the first 2 self-determination votes that took place in NC in 2018 and 2020 were incontestable, both in terms of their results and their implementation, which the association opposes. How can we consider that these are valid when the State has for decades constantly allowed massive mobility, not to say immigration, towards the territory of metropolitan French people, Wallisians, etc. in order to reduce the primary population, Kanaks, who have been demanding independence since the 1970s, a choice proposed by the French State itself for lack of wanting to give back to the territory its autonomy given in the 1950s and taken back in the 1960s.

Thus, the association does not see why the State would allow a Caledonian citizenship to be established even though it did not allow it during the Noumea Accords and already rejects certain elements of this citizenship (see: Independence flag on the driving licence: the government condemned to pay ten million Pacific francs to the State ) which it nevertheless authorised at the town hall level.

Although the association nevertheless recognizes as positive the fact of wanting to recognize a Caledonian citizen as a native who himself comes from a parent who is a Caledonian citizen, it should be remembered that this proposal had already been put forward by E. Machoro during the meeting in Nainville-les-roches in the 1980s, demonstrating that the State is only carrying over ideas from almost 40 years ago without ever applying them.

This is why the association proposes, like our Vanuatu counterparts, to qualify a Caledonian citizen, as certainly a native (right of the soil) but having a parent as well as a grandparent who are themselves Caledonian (right of blood), by birth or a period of residence of 20 to 30 years, like the French of noble rank in the Middle Ages who had to prove their belonging to the nobility over 3 generations.

Like Vanuatu, the association believes that once this citizenship is in place, it will be necessary to carry out a review of all civil service executives, compensating non-citizens with a view to replacing them with Caledonian citizens. An exemption could be put in place for the spouse of local citizens , respecting the number of years of residence and having had children born in New Caledonia. The State itself having mentioned that it was ready to take back its workforce in the event of independence, therefore it will have no difficulty in taking back some of it in the case of Caledonian citizenship.

We wish you a good read and remind you that federalism is the only solution to reconcile unity in diversity.

The APROFED association