Migrant-Led Caravan

This year, alongside the APEC 2023 meetings, governments have been negotiating IPEF: the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework - a free trade agreement between 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific that impacts 3 BILLION people, 60% of the global population, and 40% of the global GDP.

​

Neoliberal free trade policies like IPEF create harmful economic, social, political, and cultural conditions that force hundreds of millions worldwide to leave their homes. IPEF allows foreign corporations - especially from the U.S. - to destroy the land, homes, safety, and livelihoods of people in historically exploited countries, exacerbating the class division within and between countries.

​

Historically, free trade agreements like NAFTA (1994) claim to reduce migration. In reality, from 1995 to 2006, the number of Mexican migrants in the U.S. quadrupled to 8 million. Since then, Industrial employment in Mexico has been severely lowered by the closure of hundreds of plants unable to compete with the maquiladora industry - factories in Mexican border states owned by U.S. corporations that make cheaply made products for tariff-free export into the U.S. Similarly, in the Philippines, export processing zones are used to extract maximum profits for the foreign corporations with minimum investment in the country which could lead to genuine development - and forcing Filipinos to migrate in the millions seeking economic stability. 

​

Xenophobic fascists use economic and political scapegoating of migrants to fuel increased border militarization and violence. Immediately following NAFTA, the US-Mexico border became one of the most heavily militarized zones in the world, "to combat illegal immigration.” Industries like Big Agriculture exploit migrant labor in the U.S. while other sectors profit from militarized border enforcement. Criminalizing migrants while actively exploiting their labor = superprofits.

​

Both parties in the U.S. have embraced deadly anti-migrant policies, including Trump’s Title 42 and Biden's even stricter asylum ban. Biden has continued Trump’s outsourcing of border enforcement to Mexico, causing tragedies like the fire in a Juárez detention center which killed 39 migrant workers.

​

We will not stand by and let migrants' lives be dictated by the ruling classes in their endless pursuit of profits! We must stand in solidarity with migrants - from Miami to Ciudad Juárez to the 10 Million+ Overseas Filipino Workers - in the fight for human rights and total sovereignty. We must stop victim-blaming and address the root cause of forced migration -  the governments and corporations that expanded the “free market” to increase profit, whatever the cost to human life and the planet.