Migration From Poorer To Just Poor
The New York Times, whose editorial page regularly tells us about the wonders of so-called "free trade" has a piece today on the global migration of people who move from places where they are very poor to places where they can just be a little poor.
Across the developing world, migrants move to other poor countries nearly as often as they move to rich ones. Yet their numbers and hardships are often overlooked.
They typically start poorer than migrants to rich countries, earn less money and are more likely to travel illegally, which raises the odds of abuse. They usually move to countries that offer migrants less legal protection and fewer services than wealthy nations do. Yet their earnings help sustain some of the poorest people on the globe.
There are 74 million “south to south” migrants, according to the World Bank, which uses the term to describe anyone moving from one developing country to another, regardless of geography. The bank estimates that they send home $18 billion to $55 billion a year. (The bank also estimates that 82 million migrants have moved “south to north,” or from poor countries to rich ones.)
Nicaraguans build Costa Rican buildings. Paraguayans pick Argentine crops. Nepalis dig Indian mines. Indonesians clean Malaysian homes. Farm hands from Burkina Faso tend the fields in Ivory Coast. Some save for more expensive journeys north, while others find the move from one poor land to another all they will ever afford. With rich countries tightening their borders, migration within the developing world is likely to grow.
The article is quite good at describing the realities faced by migrants. What is really astounding about the article is that it makes no connection between the migration and the economic policies that created the migration. Sad.
Comments
Material for Solidarity
Jonathan: It sickens me that so many of my brothers and sisters in the union movement have so little empathy and solidarity with the rest of the working class, both here in the U.S. and especially around the world. I realize most working folks are just trying to make ends meet and are having more difficulty doing it here in the U.S.A., but unless we deal with corporate globalization, "free" trade and U.S. foreign policy head-on I don't think we're going anywhere.
Not trying to sound like some super moralist, so I have a request of you and your readers. I believe taxes is a very important way to reach working people. Is there an available source(s) that identify how U.S. tax dollars are being used to stifle economic development in poor and super-poor nations with specific examples? I am somewhat familiar with how our tax dollars are used to subsidize U.S. agribusiness and the devastating effects it has on small Mexican corn farmers, small cotton farmers of western Africa, etc. through free trade agreements.
I need more info on how our government spends money to support repressive regimes around the world and the resulting effect it has on undermining workers' and people's movements in other countries. Specific examples of how our government uses our tax dollars to further corporate global interests is needed. The info has to be readable to be of use to me.
I am of the opinion that if the above tax spending information can be put together along with the taxes spent on Iraq war, corporate tax cuts over last 40 years, and tax cuts for the wealthy over last 30 years, a compelling case can be made for fundamental change in our country perhaps by a progressive people's tax movement.
If readable info can be circulated widely in the U.S., working people will see how people around the world are getting screwed even more than we are and we should join together to fight the common enemy, instead of viewing foreign workers as the problem both here and abroad.Thanx in advance.