M99 Tania Bruguera and Immigrant Movement International

Migrant Manifesto (2011)

The work of the Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera (b. 1968) is rooted in performance and in her belief that artists should be active and engaged citizens who create art that is useful to society. In this respect she has been inspired by the Argentinian artist Eduardo Costa and his concept of ‘Arte Útil’ (‘Useful Art’: see M36). Bruguera’s socially engaged practice navigates the space between art, cultural criticism and socio-political activism, taking utopian art ideas and attempting to translate them into real-world activity.

The idea for Immigrant Movement International was first sparked in 2005, when Bruguera became concerned at the way immigrants were being misrepresented in the media during a wave of riots that swept across France. The unrest occurred after two youths died after trying to escape police harassment in the Clichy-sous-Bois commune of Paris, and quickly spread to the suburbs of other major cities. Many of the rioters were thought to be from poor migrant families, and this resulted in tighter restrictions on immigration being imposed in the riots’ aftermath.

In response Bruguera initiated a long-term art project intended to give greater visibility to the plight of immigrants and provide them with better access to political power. The result was Immigrant Movement International, which launched in Queens, New York, in 2010 with support from the Queens Museum of Art and the public-art organization Creative Time. It is now an international association with affiliations in many countries, where it operates as a grass-roots community action group, running periodic events and providing (among other things) free legal advice.

The ‘Migrant Manifesto’ was composed ‘in collaboration with immigration academics, activists, politicians, and community members’ during a convention hosted by Immigrant Movement International in Queens in November 2011. It was read in public for the first time by Tania Bruguera during the United Nations Student Conference on Human Rights, held in New York on 2 December.

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We have been called many names. Illegals. Aliens. Guest Workers. Border crossers. Undesirables. Exiles. Criminals. Non-citizens. Terrorists. Thieves. Foreigners. Invaders. Undocumented.

Our voices converge on these principles:

1. We know that international connectivity is the reality that migrants have helped create, it is the place where we all reside. We understand that the quality of life of a person in a country is contingent on migrants’ work. We identify as part of the engine of change.
2. We are all tied to more than one country. The multilaterally shaped phenomenon of migration cannot be solved unilaterally, or else it generates a vulnerable reality for migrants. Implementing universal rights is essential. The right to be included belongs to everyone.
3. We have the right to move and the right to not be forced to move. We demand the same privileges as corporations and the international elite, as they have the freedom to travel and to establish themselves wherever they choose. We are all worthy of opportunity and the chance to progress. We all have the right to a better life.
4. We believe that the only law deserving of our respect is an unprejudiced law, one that protects everyone, everywhere. No exclusions. No exceptions. We condemn the criminalization of migrant lives.
5. We affirm that being a migrant does not mean belonging to a specific social class nor carrying a particular legal status. To be a migrant means to be an explorer; it means movement, this is our shared condition. Solidarity is our wealth.
6. We acknowledge that individual people with inalienable rights are the true barometer of civilization. We identify with the victories of the abolition of slavery, the civil rights movement, the advancement of women’s rights, and the rising achievements of the LGBTQ community. It is our urgent responsibility and our historical duty to make the rights of migrants the next triumph in the quest for human dignity. It is inevitable that the poor treatment of migrants today will be our dishonor tomorrow.
7. We assert the value of the human experience and the intellectual capacity that migrants bring with them as greatly as any labor they provide. We call for the respect of the cultural, social, technical, and political knowledge that migrants command.
8. We are convinced that the functionality of international borders should be re-imagined in the service of humanity.
9. We understand the need to revive the concept of the commons, of the earth as a space that everyone has the right to access and enjoy.
10. We witness how fear creates boundaries, how boundaries create hate and how hate only serves the oppressors. We understand that migrants and non-migrants are interconnected. When the rights of migrants are denied the rights of citizens are at risk.

Dignity has no nationality.

Immigrant Movement International

November 2011