THE IMPACT OF NEOLIBERALISM TO MIGRATION AND MIGRANTS RIGHTS

IMA KEYNOTE SPEECH

THE IMPACT OF NEOLIBERALISM TO MIGRATION AND MIGRANTS RIGHTS

Presented During the Grassroots Migrants and Refugee Forum (GMRF)

15 May 2022, New York City

Good Afternoon, Buenas Tardes, Selamat Siang!

My fellow migrant and refugee activists, advocates and supporters of migrants, refugees and other displaced people, it is a very welcome sight to see almost a hundred of us gathered here today to discuss and unite on the challenges that face migrants and refugees based on our lived experience, the issues on the ground, and the economic, political and social context we live in.

Coming here, for many of us, has been most difficult as old and new hurdles are there. New policies have been instituted while old challenges for visa application, availability of resources for the grassroots, support for participation, etc. still remain. In fact, many of us were also not able to come due to immigration control and health issues. We may ask, is this what they say of a “new normal”? Or, is it just a different face of an old normal?

For the past two years of the pandemic, we have seen the more obvious changes to migration among them are stricter and more complicated visa and border controls, changes in the so-called world of work were available jobs for migrants are shifting, and falling out of the less skilled or unskilled who were already hanging on by the tip of their fingers.

Again, is this the “new normal”? Or the old normal that has been given a facelift?

To understand where we are and where we are going, we have to zero in on the very system that shapes migration and displacement, and the life and livelihood of migrants and refugees.

We live in the era of global capitalism which since the start of the 20th century has reached its highest stage of monopoly capitalism or imperialism. Under capitalism, goods or products are mass-produced through collective labor with the aid of modern machines, and meant for the market. The market has brought together people from distant parts of the country or even from distant parts of the world to work in factories, plantations, construction, fishing, tourism and other service industries.

On the other hand, a tiny fraction of the population - the capitalists, and later, the monopolists - own and control the means of production such as machines, factories and finance. The capitalist does not participate in production, but instead purchases and uses the labor-power of the working class and sells their products. The cheaper the workers are the better so they can accumulate as much profit as they want. This is the reason why even in the early history of capitalism, the migrants especially from poorer countries in Europe have been used as a source of cheap labour for various industries in Europe, America and Australia.

However, their inherent greed to accumulate profits comes with a price. Imperialism has experienced crises many times resulting in recession and world wars. But each time, they developed strategies to rescue themselves and sacrifice the majority of the poor in the world.

In the 1970s, neoliberalism was introduced and accepted globally in the 1980s, believing it would solve the crisis they experienced. It imposed a set of economic policy reforms in all countries in order to protect the individual interest of the global elite which include trade liberalisation by removing trade barriers, privatisation and austerity of basic services, and deregulation of markets.

Over the decades, the capitalist gradually takes over public assets and promotes consumerism and debt. It also subordinates sovereignty, democracy, equity, social justice, and wreaks economic violence against the majority poor around the world. 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%.

Fellow migrants and advocates,

How does neoliberalism impact the current migration and our rights?

First, it prevents the growth and development in many countries, especially in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the poorer parts of Europe. Under imperialism, neoliberalism is designed to feed the global capitalist system with cheap sources of materials, vast markets for products and cheap labor towards the extraction of superprofits. Neoliberalism stunts the growth of many countries through economic control and plunder of natural resources through unequal trade agreements, corporate-driven investment rules, and provision of loans that are oftentimes packaged as aid.

War is a perfect twin for neoliberal economics. Whether direct or by proxy, imperialists push the war agenda to profit from military deals, topple governments that resist imperialist dictates, establish puppet fascists regimes, and divide and further redivide spheres of influence. And as we all know, wars and conflicts drive millions to become refugees with extreme vulnerabilities.

Even the climate crisis works well within the neoliberal design. While paying lipservice to climate and environmental concerns, climate justice is brushed off as it points to the accountability of the capitalist system for the plunder and destruction of Mother Earth. They refuse historical accountability as they also refuse responsibility to clean up their act as it would affect their profit-making. Meanwhile, countries vulnerable to sudden and slow onset climate disasters are still the underdeveloped or developing countries that are also the major sources of displaced peoples.

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

This lays the foundation for ruling classes in countries of origin to systematise the export of their labor to other countries - in exchange of investment, remittances and government earnings - in order to keep their economies afloat. They capitalise on migration to prevent an explosion of public discontent over economic hardships and denial of social services.

Second, neoliberalism creates and perpetuates cheap and docile labour of migrants and refugees. We can testify to this neoliberal principle on migration by examining the immigration regulation. Through the visa policy, most governments bind migrants to certain conditions mainly working for one employer or company, prohibition to change jobs, repatriation when the contracts are terminated or completed, limited or no legal opportunities to settle in host countries, isolated in certain accommodation or dormitories, and so forth.

In labor laws, most migrants are excluded from minimum wage legislation and paid as cheap as ⅓ of the wage of local workers. They are excluded from labour legislation and other laws applied to local residents, without working hours and food regulation, and often blamed whenever crises arise. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many migrants are stigmatised as coronavirus carriers and spreaders, banned from having day off and gathering, and excluded from relief and financial benefits. Governments and right wing political parties intentionally mobilize anti migrants sentiments to divert the attention from systemic problems and drive a split between migrants with the host workers and community from criticizing the governments.

Under neoliberalism, both migrant and local workers stand at the losing end. While they have a job and earn a little money to send back home, migrant workers experience generally poor working conditions as well as the abandonment of their governments. For their part, local workers suffer from growing unemployment as well as deteriorating working conditions which they are forced to accept, faced with competition from very cheap and repressed migrant labor.

Even when the world is crumbling during the Covid-19 pandemic, migrants and refugees are forced to survive in whatever condition even if they become overstayed or get victimised by trafficking and syndicates just so our loved-ones will have means to live decently. The ongoing crises aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic has magnified the grave condition of women migrants. Every time the global capitalist system experiences a crisis, it is the migrants who are one of the first to be sacrificed.

Friends and advocates,

We should take critical approaches when analyzing the development and migration promoted by governments and even regional and international formations. We should use the lens that the current migration under global capitalism is being shaped by neoliberalism for merely super profit. Most policy makers do not have interests in protecting the human rights of migrants in their heart. They are managing migration because they are driven only by profits that they can make out of cheap labour of migrants and refugees.

As grassroots movements and advocates, while we recognise the importance of having international standards, we know that the problems migrants and refugees face are rooted to the very system creating forced migration and displacement.

But there is a bright light for us. Our gathering today, despite odds, shows our commitment to build our movements and be in solidarity with each other to address the more immediate concerns as well as the long-term aims of migrants and refugees. The pandemic period was difficult, but we persevered with our campaigns, mutual help and most creative actions to advance the rights and wellbeing of migrants and refugees.

This is what should inspire us to continue. We know that it is a long-haul fight where each step is a challenge but being a migrant or a refugee is already being in a state of crisis. There really is no way for us but pursue a just path out of the crisis for us to claim our rights and to live with dignity as workers and as people.

Thank you very much.

Love live migrante movement!

Long live international solidarity!