Migrants Fight Back
Transnational Assembly of Remitters Formed in Mexico City
Article and Video By Fernando Perez

MEXICO CITY, MX -- At the first Transnational Assembly of La Liga Conference in Mexico City May 12-15, activists from around the world came together to rally for migrant human rights across the world.   Through this event The Global Association of Community Sustainers was formed, a new international network of grassroots organizations fighting for the human rights of all migrant people on every continent.

Right now, migrants globally are fighting to be recognized, struggling for a new identity that extends beyond border and ethnicity. For too long, migrants, arguably the most powerful economic engine in the world, have been taken of advantage of, for their labor and hard earned money. For example, everyday in every major city in the United States migrants are lining up at places like Western Union to send a part of their pay check back home to families who haven't seen them in years.  

At the TIGRA conference we got to meet a community who is making change without the help from the local government.   We visited a rural town in the state of Puebla, Mexico in a small municipality named Acatlan.   We got to learn about their situation, about the impact of remittances and the causes and effects of their migration.   Acatlan's population has followed the similar patterns seen across Mexico and around the world, towns where the only people left are women, kids and the elderly.

The amazing thing about this little town is that it is getting things done through their international community and family ties.   Most of the people that went North, moved to New York City, where they have congregated in Harlem. The people of Acatlan have made significant changes in their town thanks to their loved ones money sent home.   They are creating change in their town so that the future generations do not have to leave in search of better opportunities like they have chosen.   In Acatlan the “paisanos” (countrymen) that collectively left to work in the United States have been organizing by sending money back to their town to fund urban projects.   We visited a church, a water well, a basketball court, and a baseball stadium all funded by the hard work of their paisanos in the United States.   On the center of the basketball court, in big letters is a message, “ Gracias A Los Paisanos de Nueva York” (Thank You New York Countrymen.)

But the process of sending money home has not been without its drawbacks. To send the money back home there are companies like Western Union and Money Gram that take an unfair percentage from each transaction.   TIGRA and La Liga , the groups that organized the conference, are calling for global action against these companies.   They need to be held accountable, the migrants hard earned money and labor is what drives the world economy. This assembly, from all corners of the planet, plans to wage a war against the money transfer industry.    

The conference opened with a press conference demanding from the leaders of the world better economic security for migrants, more political participation and a more complete transnational reality.   The conference was held in Mexico City, and it is a place like no other, a giant metropolis growing every day.   TIGRA's five-day conference took place in a historic building in the heart of Mexico City called “El Club de los Periodistas” (The Journalist Club).   We were two blocks away from the ruins of the temple of Tenochtitlan in the heart of Mexico City where hundreds of migrant organizations from around the world came together. There were South Asian taxi drivers from New York, housekeeper unions from Columbia, women's rights organizations from the Philippines, and folks who have been deported back to Latin America from the US.

To start the conference off a blessing of the day took place. He spoke of a prophecy saying that it was believed by the ancestors of this land that in Mexico City people from all corners of the planet would come together to change the world and create a new Global brotherhood and sisterhood. The prophecy may be being realized as this new movement grows and puts migrant rights at the forefront.