A southern perspective on forced migration and alternative development

Abstract

This article analyzes the critical dimensions of the current neoliberal capitalist crisis, particularly the conditions of human insecurity and forced migration fostered by the dynamics of the accumulation model and power system behind neoliberal globalization. We argue that, in the context of free market ideology, the capitalist world system has focused on reinforcing the power of international monopoly capital in the production, finance, service and trade areas via regressive strategies such as labor overexploitation, rentism and the destruction of nature. Large multinational corporations appropriate strategic and profitable segments of peripheral economies and their economic surplus, thereby exacerbating social and territorial inequalities. The reinsertion of peripheral countries into the world economy has fashioned enclave economies specialized in surplus transfer, which diverts both the natural and human resources needed to promote growth, accumulation and development in the Third World. Human insecurity, forced migration and the civilization crisis define the prevailing social conditions in peripheral countries. We propose a reconceptualization of human development from a south-based perspective so as to promote a social transformation that leads to equality, social justice and the common good.