IMA Basis Of Unity Adopted and Approved during the Founding Assembly held in Hong Kong last 16 June 2008

1. According to estimates of the UN Population Division October 2006 report on International Migration, there were 205 million people living outside their country of birth in 2005. This is about three percent of the world’s population.
2. Sixty per cent of the world's migrants are to be found in developed regions.  Most of the world's migrants reside in Europe (64 million), Asia (53 million) and Northern America (44 million).  Almost one of every 10 persons living in the more developed regions is a migrant. 
3. The number of undocumented workers is increasing. Various organizations have roughly estimated number of undocumented workers to: 12 million in Europe, 12-15 million in the United States, ____ in Canada, etc. Also in the United States, there are three million children with at least one undocumented immigrant parent.
4. There are 13 million refugees in the world at the end of 2005. The largest number of refugees is found in Asia, 7 million, followed by Africa with 3 million.  Almost three million refugees are located in developed countries.
5. Even with their conservative estimates, we can surmise how the explosive economic and political problems and conflicts in the world have doubled the number of immigrants, migrant workers, political refugees and homeless people since 1975.
6. Total remittances in the world amount to US$ 226 Trillion with 64% of it going to least developed countries. Without these remittances, many of the already bankrupt economies of labor-exporting countries would surely collapse.

1. They are regarded as cheap labor and as a very lucrative business for recruiters and governments of sending and receiving countries. Through the various strategies of labor-export by sending countries, migrants are turned into commodities for export in exchange for foreign-exchange revenues to curb their countries’ trade and budget deficits and pay for ever-increasing foreign loans.
2. In host countries, they are the most lowly-paid and exploited workers. They are made targets of discrimination and hate. Imperialist states tell their workers and people that im/migrants and refugees are the source of their own domestic crises. They are made scapegoats of the effects of ruthless neoliberal policies by claiming that migrants steal local workers’ jobs and feed off welfare funds.
3. In general, migrants - whether legal or undocumented, temporary or residents, guest workers and refugees - are subjected to threats of and actual arrests, detention and deportation. The rights of undocumented migrants, including their children, more so their existence, are not even recognized. Making them the most vulnerable group of migrants, they are criminalized and subjected to harsh and inhumane treatment in violation of international labor and humanitarian standards.
4. Women migrants are often the most victimized and abused. Being women, they experience added oppression – lower wages, stereotyped work opportunities, first to be laid off, sweat-shop slavery, deskilling, sexual harrassment, rape, etc. They are the most vulnerable in the human trafficking for forced labor, prostitution and other forms of slavery.
5. Asylum-seekers and refugees leave their homes to escape danger. But because of wars of aggression, political persecution and imperialist-sponsored ethnocide/genocide, a mass flight of peoples has been observed in the past decade.
6. Migrants and refugees do not enjoy the full guarantee of labor, health, social, and basic human rights as enshrined by international conventions. In fact, they are targets of racism and discrimination and general class exploitation.
7. With the imperialist design of flexible and contractual labor, internationally shared human resources and WTO agreements on trades and services, free trade agreements (FTAs) and other bilateral agreements on cross-border migration of peoples benefits only the government exporters of labor, highly organized recruitment businesses and multinational corporations and their subsidiaries and sub-contractors.
8. Under the global war on terror by the United States and other imperialist governments, domestic and immigration laws including recent “anti-terrorism” legislation restrict, attack and persecute many migrant communities, militarize borders, violate internationally-recognized rights to family reunification and foster hate, fear and xenophobia among the local peoples.  Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered sections of migrants experience additional oppression by receiving states.

1. Empower migrant workers, immigrants, and refugees through their self organization, help in their program for education, organization and mobilization, to struggle for their rights and welfare, and to challenge imperialist globalization and their “war on terror”.
2. Full and strict implementation of UN and ILO conventions and instruments for the protection of the rights and welfare of migrant workers and their families by sending and receiving countries
3. Full and strict implementation of conventions protecting and upholding the rights of women migrants, women immigrants, women refugees, and addressing their specific needs.
4. Recognize and assert the rights of undocumented migrant workers to full social, economic and political equality and security.
5. Recognize and assert the rights to asylum of political refugees and the end of all forms of restriction and persecution.
6. Oppose unjust and dicriminatory state health policies as a tool to discriminate and regulate the movement of people, especially migrant workers. We demand the abolition of mandatory testing as a pre-employment requisite and as a term for deportation. We also demand access for migrant workers, immigrants, refugees, and homeless people to culturally appropriate health information and services.
7. Expose and oppose militarization of borders and remove all unjust, discriminatory and violent state policies targeting im/migrants.
8. Expose and oppose labor export policies which institutionalize the commodification of labor and consequent abuse of migrant workers. As well, we demand for thorough going socio-economic reforms that will create decent jobs and promote equity.
9. End all forms of human trafficking, including sex trafficking.
10. The end to imperialist wars of aggression and other fascist measures including that of their client-states.
11. Resist military recruitment of migrants.

1. Deepen the study of the root causes of migration, its direct consequences and other related issues and problems, and the role of imperialism and governments and international institutions in the process of labor-export and forced migration;
2. Generate campaigns, opposition and action against human rights violations, abuses and violence committed against migrants and immigrants and to gather support for this cause;
3. Harness international cooperation and mutual support among the migrant and immigrant organizations and strengthen and build alliances with existing international organizations in sharing strategies of resistance and in searching for solutions to the worsening problem of labor-export and forced migration brought by imperialist globalization;
4. Encourage coordination and cooperation in the national level and regional levels of im/migrants' organizations – in the form of joint activities, coalition-building or establishing coordinating bodies -  to undertake campaigns for the protection of their rights and welfare and strengthening their organizational capacities;
5. To establish support structures and networks and maximize the use of existing ones to organize and assist migrant workers, immigrants and refugees in receiving and sending countries, who are in need and who have problems;
6. To develop a genuine international anti-imperialist and pro-migrant advocacy network among various religious groups, professionals, academicians and other citizen’s groups. Support the strengthening and organizing of immigrant groups and enhance advocacy work to change policies and laws; and
7. IMA supports the rights of all migrant workers to jobs, health care, housing, education and security and oppose all efforts of host governments to divide workers by using migrant workers as scapegoats for unemployment.