The effects of corporate-led globalization on immigration and immigrants' rights are two-fold. Corporate-led globalization creates the economic context in which international immigration operates, and puts into place the social and political environment where abuses of immigrants' rights occur.
The facts speak for themselves. Since 1994, when the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) began, nearly 3,000 people have died due to Operation Gatekeeper, according to the American Friends Service Committee. Meanwhile, recent cruel
and unjust immigration laws, in conjunction with criminal convictions
based on the racially-biased War on Drugs, have made immigrants the
fastest-growing segment of the California prison population.
The historical amnesia of US immigration policy and the lamentable way
that immigrants are treated in this country is perhaps the US's
greatest contradiction--that a nation of immigrants has turned its
back to the same kind of people who built it, and has, in effect,
turned its back on itself.
Global Exchange works with
grassroots organizations and communities across California to
illuminate the intersections between "free trade" policies, immigration
and the criminal justice system. At the same time, Global Exchange is trying to
overhaul US immigration laws to ensure that every person's rights,
regardless of nationality, are respected and protected.
Through our Exploring California program, Global Exchange also organizes educational Reality Tours that support grassroots organizing statewide. During visits to the US/Mexico border, Central Valley farming communities, or the garment industry sweatshops of
central Los Angeles, these socially-conscious travel opportunities
offer participants a first-hand view of the different perspectives of
the California reality. By doing so, GX hopes to educate and
motivate individuals, especially youth, to involve themselves in the
growing movement for social justice.
