[STATEMENT] No Borders in the Workers' Struggle! Rise Up Against Exploitation and Oppression! Smash the Chains of Neoliberalism! Defend the Dignity of Migrant Workers!
International Migrants Alliance
May 1, 2025
This May Day, global working peoples must rise in unbreakable solidarity to denounce the deepening economic crisis that continues to impact the lives of millions of migrant workers across the world. From the Global South, migrant workers are bearing the brunt of this crisis. The exploitation of migrant labor by multinational corporations and governments has worsened under the current global economic order, with many workers facing even more precarious conditions—marked by unstable employment, unsafe workplaces, lack of social protections, and the constant threat of deportation.
In Africa, Latin America, and Asia, migrant labor has become an indispensable component of their economies. In 2020, remittances sent by migrant workers accounted for approximately 3.5% of Africa's GDP, a critical lifeline for families and communities. In Latin America, migrant workers contribute to over 5% of the region’s GDP through remittances, yet face increasing challenges, including exploitation and a lack of labor protections. In Asia, migrants especially from Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines, and Indonesia are among the most exploited.
In 2022, Nepali migrant workers in the Gulf states sent home $8 billion, but their rights remain consistently violated, with thousands of workers dying each year due to unsafe labor conditions. The Philippines remains one of the world’s largest exporters of labor, with over 10 million Filipinos working abroad. Despite the remittances they send home, they are often subjected to low wages, poor working conditions, and systemic abuse. Similarly, Indonesia, with more than 9 million of its citizens working overseas—primarily in domestic work, plantations, and construction—has heavily promoted labor export as a state policy through institutions like the National Authority for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI). However, Indonesian migrant workers continue to face widespread exploitation, including wage theft, violence, trafficking, and precarious legal status, with the government prioritizing remittance income over real protections for its workers. Bangladesh's fragile economy is built on migrant workers' remittances. But in a neo-capitalist lens, there are no statistics on how many migrant workers stay abroad and how many return to Bangladesh each year. Just one example shows how neglected this sector is.
Migrants are caught in the middle of wars and conflicts that imperialist powers continue to fuel. From the wars in the Middle East and Africa to the devastating impacts of U.S. intervention in countries like Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq, millions of migrants are displaced by the violence and instability created by imperialist powers. Migrant workers, forced to flee their homes, face exploitation and abuse in the countries that exploit their labor.
Labor flexibilization, particularly for migrant workers, has worsened their exploitation, while fascist repression and the utter neglect of both U.S. and home country governments leave migrants trapped in violent detention conditions with no protection. In Canada, migrants—especially temporary foreign workers, international students, and undocumented people—are being scapegoated for job losses, housing shortages, and rising living costs. Despite claims of protecting them, new immigration restrictions have made it harder to escape abuse or gain permanent status, with nearly 1 million migrants set to be cut by 2026.
Women and young migrant workers face the intersection of gender and economic exploitation. Women migrant workers, especially from the Global South, are overwhelmingly concentrated in sectors such as domestic labor, agriculture, and the garment industry. They suffer from long working hours, violence, and harassment, with little legal protection. Migrant youth are frequently relegated to low-paying, dangerous, and unskilled work, often with no access to education or social services.
The rising tide of xenophobia, racism, and anti-migrant rhetoric is not a spontaneous reaction, but a calculated strategy deliberately developed and sharpened by fascist governments and imperialist powers to justify repression and control. In the United States, the Trump regime actively fueled hatred and fear, unleashing a brutal campaign of deportations, criminalization, and state violence against migrant communities. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was transformed into a weapon of terror, targeting the most vulnerable and reinforcing a system of racial and class oppression.
Migrant workers today are facing intensifying repression and exploitation amidst deepening global crises. We see the mass detention and deportation of tens of thousands of migrants, alongside the cancellation of asylum and parole status for over 900,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and beyond. Migrant workers continue to suffer from unpaid salaries and rampant wage theft, while those organizing unions or engaging in political activism—such as supporting Palestinian liberation—face harsh repression, as seen with the case of Lelo from Familias Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ).
These worsening conditions are closely tied to the current global economic and political crises of imperialism, where our home countries have been subjugated to the U.S.-dominated free trade agreements and the dictates of international institutions like the IMF, forcing millions to migrate in search of survival.
Meanwhile, a rising tide of fascism and far-right political power worldwide has scapegoated migrants for the failures of neoliberal policies, further endangering communities. All this occurs as the U.S. continues its imperialist wars abroad, including supporting the Zionist Israel's brutal assault on the Palestinian people, with inter-imperialist rivalries deepening global instability and suffering.
We now live in a world where governments, fueled using racism and xenophobia as instruments to divide the working class. The policies of fascist governments across Europe and the Americas serve only the interests of global capitalism, while migrant workers, especially women and young workers, are left to suffer the most severe forms of exploitation and discrimination.
The IMA calls on all migrant workers, all oppressed peoples, to build a common front against these injustices. We must unite across borders, across races, across genders, to challenge the oppressive systems that subjugate us. It is through our collective strength, our unwavering conviction, that we will resist the forces of exploitation. We must demand an end to the dehumanization of migrant workers and ensure that their labor is valued and their rights protected.
Together, we will rise against racism, xenophobia, intense militarism, and the exploitation of our labor. Together, we will fight for a world where the rights of migrant workers are upheld—where they are not scapegoated or targeted by militarized borders and security apparatuses but celebrated as essential members of the global working class.
International Migrants Alliance
May 1, 2025
