Globalization and a movie festival on the rights of immigrants
For the world’s multi-national economy,what is important is the market, the production and sale of more and more products, marketing to involve buyers on a global scale, the organization of economic and financial activity on the basis of the profit motive. Globalization seduced giant corporations with the possibility of greater profit margins thanks to the low wages of workers in developing countries...and the possibility of using immigrants to do menial tasks citizens in developed capitalist economies were unwilling to do.
However, the human element of globalization--immigration, cultural, social and political exchange and refugees of repressive regimes--turned out to be a double edged knife for the advocates of globalization. Now countries such as Italia, France, Spain and the United States--still staggering under a nagging economic crisis set off by the speculation of giant economic groups--are accusing immigrants of a thousand and one evils and passing laws aimed at restricting their rights.
An interesting exception to this anti-immigrant tidal wave has appeared in Argentina, where a law has been passed to guarantee the respect for the human rights of immigrants, an important achievement in view of the repression dictatorial governments had previously imposed on the activities of persons from other countries.
The essence of this law was discussed in a panel September 22nd at the "Centro Cultural Cooperación" in Buenos Aires, which included Horacio Verbitsky, journalist and president of the "Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales;" Dr. E. Raúl Zaffaroni, presently a minister of the Argentine Supreme Court;Dra. Stella Maris Martínez, "Defensora General de la Nación, Ministerio Público de la Defensa;" Dr. Gabriel Chausovsky, President of the "Cámara Federal de Apelaciones de Paraná;" Claudio Morgado, head of the Instituto contra la Discriminación, la Xenofobia y el Racismo;" and Jorge Muñoz,a Chilean immigrant representing the "Clínica de Migración y Derechos Humanos. Pastoral de Migraciones. Obispado de Neuquén."
The debate was carried out in the framework of "CineMigrant," a film festival dedicated exclusively to the social, economic and cultural aspects of refugees and immigrants which got under way in Buenos Aires on September 21st, an event including numerous movies and documentaries from diverse countries in Latin America, lectures, debates and workshops.
Several of the speakers stressed the effect the market view of globalization has had on immigrants, whereas their human rights have passed to a clearly inferior level of concern by means of expulsion or the threat of expulsion, denial of social, legal and medical services, etc.In the consumer society people are gaged in terms of their purchasing power and in this sense the extremely low purchasing power of immigrants reduces them to near oblivion. Yet their are attacked, according to the panelists, due to the alleged threat in crisis ridden capitalist economies with high unemployment.
Concern is frequently expressed against the presence of immigrants in developed countries, but few voices are heard in defense of their rights. This was considered by the panelists as the essential ingredient of the Argentine law on immigration, and an idea likewise stressed in the documentaries, movies and discussions planned by the CineMigrant festival.
Those interested may click into the festival’s official page:
0 comentarios