Statement of the International Migrants Alliance on International Working Women’s Day 2023
SISTERS IN STRUGGLE: WE WORKING WOMEN MIGRANTS RISE AND UNITE TO OPPOSE IMPERIALISM, EXPLOITATION, AND FORCED MIGRATION
Reference: Eni Lestari, Chairperson
Contact: ima.sect@gmail.com
On this International Working Women’s Day 2023, we call on fellow working women migrants to rise, organise and strengthen our unity to assert and defend ourselves in the face of imperialism and the neoliberal policies designed to degrade, attack, and invalidate our rights and welfare.
Most international migrants comprise women, yet we suffer from triple exploitation as workers, as migrants, and as women. We are relegated to the most dirty, difficult, and dangerous jobs with very low pay, deplorable working and living conditions, and with limited or no enjoyment of basic rights including freedom of mobility. We struggle with homesickness, years of separation, uncertainty, long distance relations and parenting, rocketing cost of living, and various social issues. We endure anxiety, stress, sexual abuse, and harassment in our migratory journey. Meanwhile, governments, corporations and employers impose very repressing regulations which deny our basic rights and our free expression. The Covid-19 pandemic magnified the grave condition of women migrants and the ongoing crisis because when imperialism experiences crisis, migrants are often first to be sacrificed.
The members of IMA comprise of working women migrants who play integral roles in the family, community, and society. Some of us are undocumented migrants who work in the informal economy to sustain a living but continue to fight for our families and for basic recognition such as identification documents. Some of us were coaxed into abusive and manipulative marriages later abandoned to fend for ourselves. In applying for work, we face high placement fees, extra costs for documents, being forced to live in our workplace but without compensation for food and rent. We are assigned to work that we did not accept or were not trained in and forced to take contraceptives. We work without occupational safety and health protections, no labour insurance, no maternity rights, and no increased pay for more work hours. We face physical violence and attempts on our life when we walk in the streets and work our jobs. If we speak up, we face deportation, violence, and loss of our jobs.
Why are we working women migrants treated unfairly and our contributions go unrecognized? Why is it that victims of labour rights violations and violence cannot access justice?
Sisters in struggle,
We recognize that the root of why we are unrecognized, treated unfairly, and face violence and rights infringements without justice is that we live under imperialism.
Under imperialism, migration is designed to feed the capitalist need for cheap labor to extract super-profits. Imperialists hamper the growth of many countries especially in Asia, Latin America, and Africa and transforms them into a reservoir of unemployed and underemployed people who are desperate to survive and are forced to sell their labour in foreign countries. The local ruling classes in our home countries collude with the imperialists by systematising the export of labor. Instead of developing an independent, self-reliant economy that provides for and is accountable to its people, the local ruling classes use labor export to force us to provide the healthcare, education, and other basic social services that our families and communities need.
Sisters in struggle,
If the root of our situation is imperialism, then we recognize that working women migrants are part of the working class. We are undocumented workers, factory workers, informal sector workers, agricultural workers, domestic workers, refugees, and asylum seekers.
We reject the idea that the “feminization of migration” and labor export have empowered us. It is not true that we are empowered just because we have become the breadwinners and hold “economic power.” Under imperialism, we are only “empowered” to the extent that we continue to be subjected to exploitation and modern-day slavery. The fact is that women are still second class or exploited gender in the family context and in patriarchal society.
We understand that imperialism will never resolve forced migration as it designed it to continue the exploitation and oppression of colonies and semi-colonies, of workers, and of other sectors. It will also not resolve the exploitation of migrants because we are in fact the cheap labour that they want. Imperialism would rather fan anti-migrant sentiments to keep workers from uniting and to hide the truth that it is imperialism that deprives the people of jobs, a decent living, social services, etc.
Sisters in struggle,
Our primary struggle is against imperialism. Imperialism produces forced migration and keeps our home countries plundered and impoverished, which denies us the ability to return home. Our struggle as working women migrants is embedded in the national and social liberation movements of our countries that will put an end to the root causes of forced migration. We can only put an end to the root causes of our misery when we join progressive organizations of migrants and actively participate in struggle. No one will give us recognition, rights, dignity, and liberation if we do not fight for them. We also recognize that we cannot do it alone and therefore we must forge solidarity with local movements in the countries where we live and work.
In the post-pandemic period, we face greater difficulties at all levels and there is no other way to address these challenges except by continuing to arouse, organise, and mobilize our ranks. Yet we shall stand and we are united in our many calls and demands:
1. Develop pro-migrant unions and cooperatives to protect workers rights and hire migrants
2. Advance protections from gender-based discrimination and violence
3. End to forced migration, promote national liberation, and a truly free and dignified migration
4. Work with dignity without harassment and intimidation
5. Ability to reunite with our families by bringing them with us or be able to return home freely
6. Recognition of our existence through identification, protection of our rights, and minimum wage protections for all workers regardless of documentation
7. Right to live in our communities and belong regardless of gender or sexual orientation
8. Be able to speak up, make complaints, or report problems without fear of job loss or police
9. Health, safety, and sanitary protections at work and in the community
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