Gayaal for Wellington Central

Gayaal Iddamalgoda, Wellington Central candidate for the Migrant and Refugee Rights Campaign, says that a vote for him will send a pro-migrant signal to the major parties.

“I’m standing to oppose the use of migrants as a political football, and to say that what’s good for migrant workers is good for all New Zealand workers,” says Gayaal.

“Internationally, both the left and the right have pitted the ‘white working class’ and migrant labour against each-other. We totally refuse this racist divide-and-rule strategy.

“Migrants must be welcomed into the country, and into the trade union movement, to combine with other workers and fight for better conditions.

“Too much of the broad left approaches migrant exploitation backwards. To address exploitation you must go after the exploiters, not the exploited.

“Clearly migrants do not want to be underpaid, but the threat of deportation makes it easier for employers to brutally exploit them. Exclusion and exploitation reinforce eachother.

“With greater freedom to move and associate, migrants and locals would be enabled to challenge this super-exploitation.”

Gayaal says that a vote for him will send a signal to the major parties, that migrants will not be taken for granted and Wellingtonians will not tolerate xenophobia.

ENDS

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