ATIK | Confederation of Workers from Turkey in Europe | AHM-ATIK News Center
ATIK | 18 – 12 – 2011 | The ‘International Migrant Rights Convention’ became an agreed decision during the United Nations General Assembly in 1990. Again, in 2000, United Nations Organisation declared 18th December as ‘International Migrants Day’. In 2003, this convention came into force with the approval of 20 countries, which were categorised as the ’emigration countries’ and are perceived as non-industrial countries. And in 2011, the majority of industrialized countries which are recipients of migration still not signed this convention.
This convention, defined the migrant rights and the minimum international status and regulation in compliance with the framework of universal declaration of human rights. Since it was signed there was a justified criticism towards the convention which stressed that ‘it does not adequately reflect the personal and humanitarian rights of migrants and instead it is designed to uphold the interests of states’. Nevertheless, not signing the agreement and preventing the entry into force as an international standard is a scandal in itself as being industrialised countries with hundreds of thousands of migration each year.
Today, according to the 2011 figures of the UN 213.6 million migrants live outside the country they were born in and the social issues brought by migration is growing vastly. And the 2/3’s of migrants consist of women and children. The undocumented, asylum seekers, refugees, citizens and those immigrants born in the country they migrated are not included in these figures.
Given an objective point of migration; it is the search of a relatively honourable life of those people whose lives have been restricted by capitalism and its derivatives. Migration is shaped and directed in accordance with the periodic interest of the states and by the capital of the barons in the host and sending countries. Migration, is at the same time is a shift in favour of bosses from ‘high waged toil‘ to the disadvantage of workers to ‘low waged toil‘. Migration is a sociological and social issue with international and intercultural dimension as being a mobilised toil and mass human movement.
Migration is sometimes an adventure, sometimes a drama, or sometimes it is a social tragedy. Each year, thousands of asylum seekers in the process of migration lose their lives in this adventure on the high seas, borders, or to be deported or murdered in the cells.
Although migration is categorised as ‘voluntary’ or ‘forced’, we cannot talk about volunteering in the case where human living conditions and spaces have been narrowed. In today’s world, the main elements which restrict the living conditions and space of people are the monopolist capitalism and semi-colonialism. Who would voluntarily leave the country they were born, grew up and were living happily if there weren’t injustices, iniquities, and inequalities due to wars, plunder, oppression and exploitation in the sending countries? Thus, when struggling with the issues of migration, the struggle should be against the conditions which form the basis of migration not ‘against migrants’ as the rulers do. Only when the injustice inequality and impossibility conditions which form the basis of migration disappear, the damage which is caused by mass migration to the people can be disposed. Migration a humanitarian imperative and not is not voluntary when people have to migrate in order to seek more prosperous, more just and a relatively more free living conditions. However, forcing people to migrate via direct or indirect methods and making trillions through this process is inhumane.
Once again, on the International Migrants Day, we declare that we will continue our struggle against those who deny, undermine and usurp the rights and freedom of migrants. Let’s join the struggle to create a more liveable world with the struggle to win, protect and advance the migrant rights. Let’s not give up on unification and merging the national/social liberation struggles of workers and toilers, regardless of their national, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Because, the liberation struggles of oppressed nations and exploited world people’s are not separate from the equality and political participation struggle of migrants. Women’s emancipation struggle and migrants struggle for equality and political participation have the same common interests. Youths struggle for freedom and migrants struggle for relatively more dignified lives has much to learn from each other. Let’s shout the slogan ‘migrants rights are also human rights’ together in advancing the struggle to create a sharing, cooperative, egalitarian and emancipatory world.
During this period where neo-fascist, chauvinist and racist bourgeois policies under state auspice is growing via ‘deep and dirty relations’ and the aggression towards migrants openly turn into massacres, we must speak of international unity of workers and toilers more and claim the principle of people’s brotherhood. Let’s defend ultimate peace and justified wars against the unjust wars.
Down with imperialism, fascism, chauvinism and all kinds of reaction!
Long live international solidarity!
