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America's Modern Immigrants Problems
美国现代的移民问题
The percentage of immigrants (including those unlawfully present) in the United States has been creeping upward for years. At 12.6 percent, it is now higher than at any point since the mid 1920s.
美国移民的比例（包括目前非法的）已持续数年猛增。达到了12.6%，是20世纪20年代以来最高的比例。
We are not about to go back to the days when Congress openly worried about interior races polluting America's bloodstream. But once again we are wondering whether we have too many of the wrong sort of newcomers. Their loudest critics argue that the new wave of immigrants cannot, and indeed do not want to, fit in as previous generations did.
我们并非要回到国会公开地表示忧虑劣等民族会影响美国的血统的年代。但是，我们再次担忧，我们对待这些新来者犯了很多错误。他们最响亮的评论家指出，新一代移民不能，事实上也不想，像他们的前辈那样适应美国。
We now know that these racist views were wrong. In time, Italians, Romanians and members of other so-called inferior races became exemplary Amerians and contributed greatly, in ways too numerous to detail, to the building of this magnificent nation. There is no reason why these new immigrants should not have the same success.
我们现在知道这些种族分子的观点是错误的。在过去，意大利人、罗马尼亚人和其他被成为劣等名族的成员构成了美国人，他们在难以计数的方面为这个伟大国家的建立做出了巨大贡献。没有理由认为这些新移民不应该取得相同的成功。
Although children of Mexican immigrants do better, in terms of educational and professional attainment, than their parents, UCLA sociologist Edward Telles has found that the gains don't continue. Indeed, the fourth generation is marginally worse off than the third. James Jackson, of the University of Michigan, has found a similar tend among black Caribbean immigrants.
尽管墨西哥移民的后代在教育、职业上比他们父母亲做得更好，加州大学洛杉矶分校社会学家爱德华·特列斯发现优势没有继续。事实上，第四代移民被遍及化了，比第三代移民更糟。密歇根大学詹姆斯·杰克逊发现加勒比黑人移民也有相似的趋势。
Tells fears that Mexican-Americans may be fated to follow in the footsteps of American blacks that large parts of the community may become mired in a seemingly state of poverty and underachievement. Like African-Americans, Mexican-Americans are increasingly relegated to segregated, substandard schools, and their dropout rate is the highest for any ethnic group in the country.
特列斯担心墨西哥裔美国人命中注定要跟随美国黑人的脚步，他们大部分人陷入了似乎贫穷和无所成就的境地。像非洲裔美国人一样，墨西哥裔美国人日益增多地陷入了分离的、低等的学校，他们的辍学率是美国所有族裔中最高的。
We have learned much about the foolish idea of excluding people on the presumption of ethnic racial inferiority. But what we have not yet learned is how to make the process of Americanization work for all.
我们已经了解基于民族或种族的劣等而将某些人排除在外是多么愚蠢的想法。但是我们还没有学会的是怎样实现美国化的进程。
I am not talking about requiring people to learn English or to adopt American ways; those things happen pretty much on their own. But as arguments about immigration hear up the campaign trail, we also ought to ask some broader question about assimilation, about how to ensure that people, once outsiders, don't forever remain marginalized within these shores.
我并不是要求人们去学英语或采取美国人的的方式；这样的事只要是靠他们自己。但是随着移民的争论在竞选活动中讨论得越来越热烈，我们也应该问些关于融入社会更宽泛的问题，如何确保曾经的门外汉不会永远在美国被边缘化。
That is a much larger question than what should happen with undocumented workers, or how best to secure the border, and it is one that affects not only newcomers but groups that have been here for generations. It will have more impact on our future than where we decide to set the admissions bar for the latest ware of would-be Americans. And it would be nice if we finally got the answer right.
这个问题比如何对待非法移民用工，或如何更好地保卫海岸等问题更宽广，这个问题不仅影响了新移民，也包括上几代的移民。这个问题对我们未来的影响比我们决定为将来的美国移民潮设置准入门槛的影响更大。如果我们找到正确答案就好办了。
