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The intrinsic vocation of the island of Mauritius to become a center of redistribution of goods in the “world economy” is inextricably linked to its economic and social history, and to the way in which, from the very start of the build up of the population of Mauritius, multiple indigenous cultural references were created without attaching exclusive importance to territoriality. Throughout the history of Mauritius, from the time of the development of capitalist trade and industrial capitalism, right up to modern day globalization, the same type of socioeconomic integration has presided over local development. The influence of more or less advanced liberal economics determined the development of a trade and small plantation economy. This form of integration led to a common pattern of settling in Mauritius, backed up by the oath of allegiance to the British colony. This is the reason why the tendency to emigrate, which appeared early on, in the 1960s, has contributed to the continuation of the economic balance of Mauritius. Beyond the ideologies, the social relations which are established involve legal, religious and political references. They are characterized by the fundamental ambivalence of attachment to the “land” of the nation: an ambivalent differentiation between country of family origin and country of birth. This duality, which lies at the heart of Mauritian nationhood, reveals the way in which spatial mobility interacts with the processes of internal differentiation, thus explaining the structuring of the urban elite and the emergence of a middle class since the obtaining of Independence in 1968.