Statement of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) on the International Migrants Day 2022
As we observe the International Migrants Day 2022, we remember how grassroots migrants stood our ground, fought against attacks to our rights, and wielded solidarity to respond to crisis situation of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people, and defeat attempts to further exploit and oppress our sector.
Globally, it is evident that most countries are reverting to pre-pandemic situation when it comes to mobility rules and immigration policies. However, scratching the surface of “normalisation” reveals that the condition of migrants has worsened and the strategies for recovery currently championed shall only lead to graver impacts on the livelihood, rights and dignity of migrants, immigrants, refugees and the displaced.
The multiple crisis in the world is intensifying and imperialists are scrambling for solutions still much driven by neoliberal globalisation and the imperialists’ desire for territories to plunder, markets to corner, and cheap labor to export. Wars and conflicts, directly or by proxy, are also generated in the scramble for supremacy by contending imperialist powers.
The future of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people is bleak as narratives of recovery and building back are replete with strategies for labor flexibilisation, labor exportation, border security, precarity, constriction of democratic spaces, and attacks against rights defenders. Wage, job security, services, social protection and right to association and collective action are set to be sacrificed for profit both of businesses and of governments.
Women migrants suffer not only from class oppression but also from feudal and patriarchal system that oppresses them as women. Seafarers are abandoned; their rights are clipped, and they are left at the mercy of giant shipping companies.
The root causes of migration – economic, political, social and ecological – are blurred and sanitised by catchphrases such as migration for development, fair and ethical recruitment, or migration management.
In this condition, the only path to take is that of struggle and movement building.
Grassroots organisations, unions, and alliances should be strengthened, continuously expanded, and their capacity to wage struggles increased. In countries where migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants and displaced people are not organised, outreach and building of solid collective strength should be conducted.
Neoliberal globalisation attacks workers and strives to drive a wedge among host workers and migrant workers. This must not be allowed to prosper. Let us continuously raise worker’s class awareness and solidarity, conduct concrete worker’s campaigns, and realise cooperation and unity of organisations of migrant workers and of host workers.
We must unite with various other sectors – women, youth, rural people, indigenous groups – in countries of origin as well as host countries to further advance struggles for national freedom, democracy, people’s rights, equality, and justice. Let us broaden the ranks of advocates who support the migrant’s movement and our struggle for our rights and wellbeing.
At the core of our migration, exploitation and oppression, is imperialism and its manifestations. It is important for the movement of migrants to grasp and join anti-imperialist campaigns and movements to ensure that as we confront our struggles everyday, we also contribute to defeating imperialism and other reactions to build a world system that is truly peaceful, just and humane.
The International Migrants Alliance (IMA) concluded year 2022 with a resoundingly successful 5th Global Assembly. We celebrate the International Migrants Day and look forward to the next year with more vigour, militance and determination to wage successful campaigns, heighten unity with workers, and further advance the movement of migrants, immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people towards a world without forced migration and commodification of migrant labor. ###