One solution: freedom of movement for immigrants

international | migration / racism | press release Monday July 26, 2010 18:18 by European Anarkismo Organizations - Anarkismo

International campaign of European organizations in the Anarkismo network

As internationalists we are against any kind of boundary or barrier between people and we oppose the reinforcement of boundaries around EU. We will fight any kind of xenophobic or racial discrimination against both migrants and native ethnic minorities. [Français] [Norsk] [Italiano] [Čeština] [Dansk] [Ελληνικά]

Immigration is an inevitable effect of the economic and military policies conducted by European states; the concerted efforts to prevent it are the result of racism and an unwillingness to face domestic consequences.

The response from the erstwhile heralds of globalization has been to adopt a range of measures aimed at preventing migration. Europe has adopted common migration frameworks, signed treaties regulating the rights of refugees, and strengthened migration controls at Europe's periphery. The underlying assumption has been that these people must be kept out. In the process of restricting immigration, European countries have violated international human rights conventions.

The combination of capital's need for casualised labour and the precarity surrounding illegal migrants has led to workers taking menial jobs, thus increasing illegal labor under conditions far below those of the wider working class. This also serves to depress wages and working conditions across the board. Capitalists have actually managed to use policies on migrations to obtain cheap workforces.

On top of that, European states have adopted policies that severely curtail the rights of migrants. The use of detention is widespread, affecting people whose legal status is not yet decided, or whose applications have been rejected, facing detention for extended periods of time. Essentially, the legal framework around migration criminalizes the migrant. Most dramatically, the detention and persecution of migrants in Europe is causing immense suffering and fostering the growth of an underclass of non-citizens.

The European Union itself is particularly involved in the closure of boundaries, through programs such as The Hague program and the EU's ad hoc agency Frontex, whose work is entirely based on the idea that immigration and migrants are inherently problematic. This agency is in charge of a European border police force that carries out repressive operations (like collective arrests and deportations) devoid of any control.

As libertarian socialists opposed to class exploitation and the State, it is important that we develop a thorough analysis of these issues, and find effective means to combat the growth of xenophobia, repressive State policies aimed at migrants, and the inhumane treatment of refugees. In addition, we must attempt to relate such struggles to the wider class struggle in Europe, so as to reinvigorate the internationalist current in the organizations of the working class.

As internationalists we are against any kind of boundary or barrier between people and we oppose the reinforcement of boundaries around EU. We will fight any kind of xenophobic or racial discrimination against both migrants and native ethnic minorities.

As anarchist-communist organizations we support:

• freedom of movement and equal rights for all, with special attention on women;
• the right for all to live and work in the country of one's choice, with one's family;
• the end of arbitrary arrests;
• the closure of all detention centers;
• an end to deportations;
• the regularisation of all illegal migrants;
• the abrogation of all European directives and agreements.

Alternative Libertaire (France)
Workers Solidarity Movement (Ireland)
Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici (Italy)
Motmakt (Norway)
Organisation Socialiste Libertaire (Switzerland)