WHY HOST AND MIGRANT WORKERS OPPOSE NEOLIBERAL GLOBALIZATION?

Speech by Eni Lestari (Chairperson of International Migrants Alliance) on the webinar “From Ravaging The APEC Global South To IPEF” that was held by APRN (Asia Pacific Research Network), ILPS Asia Pacific (International League of People Struggle), IMA (International Migrants Alliance), International People’s Front, IPMSDL (Int'l Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self Determination & Liberation), and People Over Profit.

WHY HOST AND MIGRANT WORKERS OPPOSE NEOLIBERAL GLOBALIZATION?

Good evening, good morning and good afternoon wherever you are! 

Warmest greeting of solidarity from the International Migrants Alliance!

IMA is a global alliance of grassroots migrants, immigrants, refugees and displaced people that defends and promotes the democratic rights and well-being of all migrant, immigrant, and refugee workers.

IMA is about building an international people’s movement of migrants and refugees in solidarity with people’s movements in host countries, home countries, and around the world as we believe that we are all victims of the current plunder and exploitation of global capitalism and its current scheme of neoliberal globalization. 

I want to discuss with you why we - the migrants and refugees in IMA - do not want the neoliberal globalization. 

The system today is run by capital and driven by profit. Those who own capital or capitalists do not participate in the production, but instead, they purchase and use the labor - power of the working class and sell their products. 

When the neoliberal globalization was introduced in the 1980s - as a new strategy to save monopoly capitalism from its own crisis, it prevented the growth and development in many countries, especially in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the poorer parts of Europe. 

It intentionally stunts the growth of these countries through economic control and plunder of natural resources through unfair trade agreements, corporate-driven investment rules, and provision of loans that are oftentimes packaged as aid. It has been devastating the economy of low and middle income countries. 

It creates a condition where many countries become a bottomless well of an army of unemployed and underemployed people originating from displaced workers, farmers, indigenous communities, urban and other poor elements in the society. People desperate to survive who are eventually forced to sell their labour in foreign countries.

Furthermore, the ruling classes in these origin countries systematize the export of their labor to other countries in exchange of investment, remittances, and government earnings in order to keep their economies afloat. They capitalize on migration to prevent an explosion of public discontent over economic hardships and denial of social services.

Today, more countries are dependent on the migrant’s remittances. It ranks as one of the top revenues and used to save these governments from bankruptcy. Sri Lanka is one of its undeniable examples. 

Furthermore, neoliberalism promotes war whether direct or by proxy. Imperialists push the war agenda to profit from military deals, topple governments that resist imperialist dictates, establish puppet fascist regimes, and divide and further redivide spheres of influence. As we all know, wars and conflicts drive millions to become refugees and asylum seekers with extreme vulnerabilities.

In short, neoliberalism has intensified forced displacement and set the stage for forced migration of people within and across borders. Over decades, the number of migrants and refugees continues to increase. By 2022, there are 270 million migrants and over 60 million refugees around the world. This number is even bigger than the Indonesian population as the fourth largest nation in the world.

But the exploitation does not stop here. Even after we become migrants and refugees, neoliberalism uses the displaced people around the world as stock of cheap, disposable, and flexible labor for their development agenda. 

Neoliberalism creates and perpetuates cheap and docile labour of migrants and refugees. How do they do this? They impose through highly controlled and restricted mobility and denial of the human rights of migrants and refugees.  

Migrant and refugee labour are mainly recruited to perform 3D jobs (dirty, difficult, and dangerous) in industrial, construction, agriculture, mining, and other service sectors. They are paid as low as ⅓ of the wage of local workers and excluded from labour protection, without working hours and food regulation. 

The control over migrants and refugees are systematized through the visa policy with very short visa, lack or no right to be permanent resident, and border control. At the same time, refugees are given very limited access to employment, health, and education. When refugees gain access to work, however, the type of employment that they can perform does not fit their actual skills.  Meanwhile, women migrants are designated in stereotyped jobs that are considered as lower-skilled with very low pay, long working hours, exploitative living and working conditions, and vulnerable to abuses.

Every time the global capitalist system experiences crises, it is the migrants and refugees who are among the first to be sacrificed through massive lay-offs and deportations, arrests and imprisonment, stigmatization, and discrimination. Under very repressive migration regimes and slogans of migration for development, the already undervalued migrant labour becomes cheaper, more docile, and disposable.  

Why is there a need for unity between host and migrant workers?

If we have to reflect on the Covid-19 and post-pandemic, there is one common lesson for us to realize. Every time there is a crisis, the capitalists blame and attack our rights as workers and peoples, regardless of our countries, ethics, and religions. They use public money to save themselves and create new profit. 

In 2016, the wealthiest 62 people on earth own as much wealth as the bottom half 3.5 billion and the top 1% were wealthier than the remaining 99%. Yet, during the pandemic from 2020 to 2022 alone, the richest 1% had captured around half of new wealth or almost twice as much money as the bottom 99% of the world’s population.   

Despite the outcries and protests, the world leaders choose to deny the people’s concerns and demands. From the G20 meeting in Bali to the G7 meeting in Japan to the upcoming APEC meeting in San Francisco, we witness monopolists’ attempts to save - even multiply - their profits, while our governments choose to safeguard business’s interests over the livelihood and well being of their own peoples.  

This is the reason we lose hope in our governments and we have no choice but to take matters into our own hands. Yet, the growing protests of oppressed people around the world are confronted with repression and militarization. 

History has told us that when the workers are united and build power and act in genuine solidarity, we can win and create a better system for humanity. We have achieved many victories for workers and people’s rights in the past and even up to now.

We must build upon these victories to face the challenges of today against the deepening exploitation of all workers, the forced migration of hundreds of millions, and the oppression of peoples and nations struggling to determine their own future and build a better world. Our resistance is not only justified, but necessary, now more than ever. Thank you.