2013英语二text    2

A century ago, the immigrants from across the Atlantic include settlers and sojourners. Along with the many folks looking to make a permanent home in the United States came those who had no intention to stay. Between 1908 and 1915, and 7 million people arrived while about 2 million departed. About a quarter of all Italian immigrants, for example, eventually returned to Italy for good. They even had an affectionate nickname, “uccelli di passaggio”, birds of passage.

一个世纪以前，横渡大西洋的移民(immigrant)既包括定居者(settler)，也包括旅居者(sojourner)。在这些一道(along with)而来的同乡们(folks)当中，有很多人指望(look to)在美国永久安家，但也有那些人无意(have no intention to)在美国定居。在1908到1915年间，共有七百万人来到美国，但其中有两百万人没有留下来。举个例子，当时大约1/4的意大利移民最终(eventually)永久性地 (for good)返回到了意大利。人们给他们起了一个亲密的(affectionate)绰号，“uccelli di passaggio”，意为“候鸟”。

Today, we are much more rigid about immigrants. We divide newcomers into two categories: legal or illegal, good or bad. We hail them as Americans in the making, or brand them as aliens fit for deportation. That framework has contributed mightily our broken immigration system and the long political paralysis over how to fix it. We don’t need more categories, but we need to change the way we think about categories. We need to look beyond strict definitions of legal and illegal. To start, we can recognize the new birds of passage, those living and thriving in the gray areas. We might then begin to solve our immigration challenges.

相比过去，我们今天对待移民太过苛刻(be rigid about)。我们把新来的移民划分为两类(category)：合法的(legal)或非法的(illegal)，好的或劣的。我们或是在他们搞建设(making)时招呼(hail)他们为自己人，或是在他们足够被驱逐(deportation)时称他们为外国人(alien)。这种政策框架(framework)在很大程度上致使我们的移民体制(system)千疮百孔，并使得在改革(fix)移民体制方面陷入长期的政治瘫痪(paralysis)。我们不是需要更多的移民类别，而是需要改变我们对移民类别的思考方式。我们也不需要着眼于对合法或非法移民进行严格的界定(definition)。首先，我们可以承认新的“候鸟”，承认那些在灰色地带生存并发展得不错(thrive)的那些人。到那时，我们才有可能着手解决诸多移民难题(challenge)。

 Crop pickers, violinists, construction workers, entrepreneurs, engineers, home health-care aides and physicists are among today’s birds of passage. They are energetic participants in a global economy driven by the flow of work, money and ideas. They prefer to come and go as opportunity calls them. They can manage to have a job in one place and a family in another.

现今的“候鸟”当中有庄家收获工们、小提琴家(violinist)们、建筑(construction)工人们、企业家(entrepreneur)们、工程师们、家庭医疗保健(health-care)助理们、物理学家(physicist)们。工作流动、追逐金钱和各种理念驱使着(drive)精力充沛的(energetic)他们参与到全球经济。他们比较喜欢随着机会的召唤进行迁移，他们能够做到在一处工作，在另一处安家。

With or without permission, they straddle laws, jurisdictions and identities with ease. We need them to imagine the United States as a place where they can be productive for a while without committing themselves to staying forever. We need them to feel that home can be both here and there and that they can belong to two nations honorably.

不管有没有得到许可，他们都已轻而易举地(at ease)跨越了(straddle)法律、审判(juridiction)和身份(identity)的界限。我们需要他们把美国认作(imagine .. as )可以暂时(for a while)进行生产和收获(productive)的地方，而不是让他们努力在此永久定居。我们需要他们感觉到美国和他们的祖国都是他们的家，让他们觉得在两个国家都能够受到人们的尊敬。

Accommodating this new world of people in motion will require new attitudes on both sides of the immigration battle. Looking beyond the culture war logic of right or wrong means opening up the middle ground and understanding that managing immigration today requires multiple paths and multiple outcomes, including some that are not easy to accomplish legally in the existing system.

为容纳(accommodate)这批新兴流动人群，这场移民战斗的双方都需要采用新的态度。不着眼于文化战争的逻辑正确与否就意味着要开辟中间地带，并认识到处理当下的移民事务需要采用多条途径，获得多种成果, 而其中的一些成果是现存(existing)体制难以合法实现(accomplish)的。