Statement of the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants on International Migrants Day 2022

Support, advance and join migrants in their movement building

On this 2022 International Migrants Day, we in the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) commit to supporting migrants in their empowerment and development of their movement, amplifying their voices and co-creating spaces for their campaigns and actions.

We bear witness to the resilience, mutual help and solidarity, steadfast campaigning and support led by grassroots migrant organisations in the region all throughout the pandemic. As they assist fellow migrants and their families in need, they forged cooperation with local workers and people’s groups, linked up with advocates and parliamentarians, and called for inclusion and action from host and home governments.

In shaping and implementing APMM’s many projects and initiatives, we involve and partner with grassroots migrants. Their agency and active intervention enrich conversations and processes, substantiate and sharpen analyses on migration and relevant issues, and develop strategies for migrant empowerment and engagement.

We express this as living and working conditions of grassroots migrants worsen under neoliberal globalisation. Their insecurity has never been so pronounced as in the recent three years. As the racism, exploitation and discrimination migrants confront intensify, so do the root causes back home that drive many of their fellows to leave – poverty, unemployment, landlessness, conflict, and climate change.

Migrants’ advocates like the APMM have a role to play in building and strengthening partnerships with them, supporting their campaigns and many initiatives, contributing to their continuing empowerment as leaders and actors in their respective local communities, and developing strategies with them in engaging in national, regional and global advocacy spaces like in the Global Compact for Migration or Agenda 2030.

Empowered, grassroots migrants do not only articulate their issues but suggest concrete ways to resolve them. Truly, as stated by a migrant worker leader, migrants’ meaningful participation is realised when migrants’ demands are met and acted upon.

Advance and support migrant causes. Amplify their voices. Build and strengthen partnerships with them.

#WithMigrantsForMigrants #IMD2022