Migrante International stands in solidarity with Chinese and Filipino workers who are victims of the labour export program implemented by China and by the Duterte regime. We denounce the racist antagonism being sown by xenophobes that seek to set workers from both countries against each other.
Migrants are not criminals and their right to live in dignity and security must be respected regardless of whether they are documented or undocumented. Everyday, they endure the pain of banishment from their places of origin just to bring food on the table for their loved ones back home. It is only rightful that they be treated just as the way we want overseas Filipino workers to be treated in any host country.
The influx of Chinese workers in the Philippines only proves that Duterte’s Build Build Build program is a failure and does not really generate employment opportunities for our own Filipino workers. Instead, Filipinos are only being burdened of subsidizing the private profit of wealthy capitalists and big private contractors through Duterte’s TRAIN Law.
It is also a testament to the failure of China to improve the lives of its own workers in its adoption of the capitalist system of production. As a result, China is now involved in the capitalist exploitation not only of its own workers but that of the labour forces of other countries. It is taking advantage of the Neoliberal policies being adhered to by countries like the Philippines to establish its emerging imperialist ascendancy. China’s capitalist disposition of placing profit over people is fueling labour unrest among mainland Chinese workers.
Conclusively, it is President Duterte himself who provoked Filipinos over the threat to our country’s sovereignty by providing a bigger sway to China in dictating how the Philippine government will go about with implementing its Build Build Build program. Just as how it is done in the Philippines, China intends to address its economic slowdown and tame the resentment of Chinese workers by luring them to overseas employment. We see this as one way China can boost its foreign currency reserves through remittances to mitigate the effects of its ongoing trade war with the US, its main imperialist rival.
