“Migration Treated as a Tool For Neoliberal Economic Growth”, said Eni Lestari, Chairperson of IMA during the online discussion on G7

The online discussion themed “On the Nature and Character of the Group of Seven (G7)” was organized by the Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN), International League of People's Struggle (ILPS) Asia Pacific, International Migrants Alliance (IMA), People Over Profit (POP), International Peoples' Front (IPF) and WORKINS, on April 15, 2023, at 9 PM Hong Kong SAR.

The G7 consists of the United States, Britain, Italy, Japan, Germany, Canada, and France. This discussion on the G7 was carried out timely because the G7 will hold a summit next month in Japan.

Keynote speaker of the discussion was Antonio Tujan Jr from the Institute of Political Economy and ILPS. He explained that the G7 is a clique of dominant global powers that hold meetings annually to discuss their common political-economic-security interests. G7 is the US-led western imperialist alliance because it is the country with the largest economic hegemony and the US has comprehensive alliance and patronage over other imperialist countries (historical, postwar reconstruction, trade and investment, security and military, nuclear umbrella, etc.).

Amid the domination of the G7 to secure their interests in the world, the people of the world are experiencing the effects of multi-crisis, erosion of rights, and threats of war. Tujan said that the interests of the G7 conflict with the interest of the people of the world which is to achieve people-centered development that guarantees peace and prosperity and protection of the planet.

Eni Lestari, Chair of the International Migrants Alliance, explained that the G7 countries are currently experiencing a population decline since 2000, and a high rate of the aging population. So, these countries need migrants, however, Migration is treated as a tool for their neoliberal economic growth, explained Lestari.

Some of the realities of migration in G7 countries include highly selective and discriminative, many jobs are precarious, temporary, and low-paid, and women migrants are concentrated in highly feminized sectors (e.g., education, health, social, care, and domestic work).

Azra Sayeed of the International Women Alliance and Roots for Equity explains that the G7 has deteriorated and set back the situation of women. US war on terror policy has resulted in wars and invasions in the middle east and other regions, increasing domestic abuse and prostitution, illiteracy of women, and thousands of women have been left widowed and vulnerable, criminal accusations of women are high, religious conservatism dictates women's lives and livelihood, Sayeed added.

A similar situation also happened in affected countries of climate change. While G7 is the biggest emitter, climate disasters happen in other countries, resulting in forced displacement, early marriages of very young girls, forced marriages, and human trafficking, Sayeed explained.

Wali Haider from the People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) mentions that the world is moving further away from its goal of ending hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030, as hunger and food insecurity increased over the years. The G7 countries are the gatekeepers for Monopoly Capital and create structural barriers, resulting in monopoly in land tenure and agriculture -such as seeds, agrochemicals, grain, meat, and dairy products- by corporations, endanger people’s food security, Wali added. While developed countries such as the United States provided many subsidies for their agriculture, third-world countries were asked to abolish their agricultural subsidies, continued Wali.

Furthermore, Yoshio Nakamura, the secretariat of the Asia-Wide Campaign Japan and an ICC member of the ILPS, explained Japan's preparations to host the G7 Summit on May 19-21. According to him, the G7 Summit in Hiroshima will further escalate military tensions and war crises in East Asia because of the US-Japanese strategy of China containment or the so-called free and open Indo-Pacific strategy.

This discussion on the G7 provided a lot of information and knowledge and fostered a sense of solidarity. The discussion organizers said that similar discussion activities would continue to be held in the future and invited all discussion participants who were present to participate in further discussion activities.

#G7 #PeopleCenteredDevelopment #Migrants