A century ago, the immigrants from across the Atlantic inclued settlers and sojourners.
一个世纪前,来自大西洋的移民包括定居者和旅居者。
Along with the many folks looking to make a permanent home in the United States came those who had no intention to stay,
有许多人来美国是希望能在此永久安家,也有些人并无意定居,
and who would make some money and then go home.
想挣一些钱,之后就回家。
Between 1908 and 1915, about 7 millin people arrived while about 2 million departed.
在1908年到1915年之间,来此的700万人中,大约有200万人最终离开。
About a quarter of all Italian immigrants, for exanmle, eventually returned to Italy for good.
例如,大概有四分之一祖籍意大利的移民最终都永远回到故国。
They even had an affectionate nickname, "uccelli di passaggio," birds of passage.
他们甚至有一个满怀深情的绰号:候鸟。
Today, we are much more rigid about immigrants.
如今,我们对移民的理解更加刻板了。
We divide nemcomers into two categories: legal or illegal, good or bad.
我们把新来者区分为两类:合法移民与非法移民,好移民或坏移民。
We hail them as Americans in the making, or brand them as aliens fit for deportation.
我们把他们称之为正在形成中的美国人,或者把他们当作外星人驱逐出境。
That framework has contributed mightily to our broken immigrantion system and the long political paralysis over how to fix it.
这一概念框架对我们支离破碎的移民体系、长时间的政治瘫痪做出了巨大贡献,而不是如何解决这个问题。
We don't need more categories, but we need to change the way we think about categories.
我们不需要更多的类别,但是我们应该改变我们对类别的看法。
We need to look beyond strick definitions of legal and illegal.
我们不应该局限于合法或者非法的严格定义。
To start, we can recognize the new birds of passage, those living and thriving in the gray areas.
首先,我们可以辨别出新的移民,那些在灰色地带生或和发展的人。
We might then begin to solve our immigration challenges.
然后也许我们就能开始面对移民挑战了。
Crop pickers, violinists, construction workers, entrepreneurs, engineers,
收庄稼人、小提琴手、建筑工人、企业家、工程师、
home health-care aides and physicists are among today's birds of passage.
家庭护理助手和医生等构成了今天的移民。
They are energetic participants in a global economy driven by the flow of work, money and ideas.
他们积极参与由劳工、资金和观念潮流所驱动的全球经济。
They prefer to come and go as opportunity calls them.
他们更愿意随着良机的召唤来到美国或者离开,
They can manage to have a job in one place and a family in another.
他们可以在一个地方安家,在另一个地方谋职。
With or without permission, they straddle laws, jurisdictions and identities with ease.
有或没有许可,他们都可以轻松地跨越法律、辖区和身份。
We need them to imagine the United States as a place
我们需要他们把美国想象为这样一个地方,
where they can be productive for a while without committing themselves to staying forever.
在这里他们可以短暂停留,而无需承诺永久居留于此。
We need them to feel that home can be both here and there and that they can belong to two nations honorably.
我们需要让他们感觉到四处皆可为家,他们可以有尊严地同属两个国家。
Accommodating this new world of people in motion will require new attitudes on both sides of the immigration battle.
生活在这个人们不停移动的新世界,移民之战的双方都需要有新的态度。
Looking beyond the culture war logic of right or wrong means opening up the middle ground
超越移民合法性方面的文化之争,意味着要开启中间地带,
and understanding that managing immigration today requires multiple paths and multiple outcomes.
意识到当今的移民管理体系需要多种途径,从而取得多样化的结果。
Including some that are not easy to accomplish legally in the existing system.
其中就包括解决那些在现有体系中很难通过合法手段实现的问题。