文/威廉·布蘭尼金 譯/田虔虔 審訂/錢多秀

拒絕被同化的移民

文/威廉·布蘭尼金 譯/田虔虔 審訂/錢多秀

Night is falling on South Omaha2奧馬哈是美國內(nèi)布拉斯加州最大的工商業(yè)城市，是道格拉斯縣的縣治所在，臨密蘇里河岸。,and Maria Jacinto is patting tortillas33 tortilla墨西哥傳統(tǒng)食物，玉米粉不發(fā)酵制作的薄餅，可以隨意搭配配料、醬料食用。for the evening meal in the kitchen of the small house she shares with her husband and five children. Like many others in her neighborhood, where most of the residents are Mexican immigrants, the Jacinto household mixes the old country with the new.

[2] As Jacinto, who speaks only Spanish, stresses a need to maintain the family’s Mexican heritage, her eldest son, a bilingual 11-year-old who wears a San Francisco 49ers4又稱舊金山淘金者隊，是一支美國國家橄欖球聯(lián)盟（NFL）球隊，成立于1946年，曾五次贏得超級碗冠軍。jacket and has a paper route, comes in and joins his brothers and sisters in the living room to watchThe Simpsons5《辛普森一家》是美國福克斯廣播公司出品的一部動畫情景喜劇，通過展現(xiàn)霍默、瑪姬、巴特、麗莎和麥琪一家五口的生活，諷刺性地勾勒出了居住在美國心臟地帶人們的生活方式。.

[3] In many ways, the experiences of the Jacinto family are typical of the gradual process of assimilation6assimilation吸收；接受。that has pulled generations of immigrants into the American mainstream. That process is nothing new to Omaha, which drew waves of Czech, German and Irish immigrants in the early 1900s.

[4] American culture remains a powerful force―for better or worse―that in fl uences people both here and around the world in countless ways. But several factors have combined in recent years to allow immigrants to resist, if they choose, the Americanization that had once been considered irresistible.

[5] In fact, the very concept of assimilation is being called into question as never before. Some sociologists argue that the melting pot7“熔爐”常被用來比喻美國、加拿大及巴西等異質(zhì)性國家，擁有不同文化背景的移民“熔化”到這些國家的各個種族和民族，彼此滲透交流，最后同化形成一種新的、具備向心力的文化。often means little more than “Anglo conformity”8“盎格魯化”是民族社會學(xué)的一個專業(yè)詞匯，是指英國向北美移民開始實行的移民政策，即無論文化背景，無論國家，移民要想在美國生存，成為美國公民，就必須盎格魯化，即使用英語、遵守盎格魯-撒克遜傳統(tǒng)規(guī)范、價值觀、社會制度，這是由政府推行的、不間斷的、完全的族群同化的過程。and that assimilation is not always a positive experience―for either society or the immigrants themselves. And with today’s emphasis on diversity and ethnicity, it has become easier than ever for immigrants to avoid the melting pot entirely.Even the metaphor itself is changing,having fallen out of fashion completely with many immigration advocacy9美國的移民支持團(tuán)體多為非盈利組織，為移民提供咨詢、手續(xù)辦理等服務(wù)和幫助。and ethnic groups. They prefer such terms as the “salad bowl” and the “mosaic,”10相較于“熔爐”，“沙拉拼盤”和“拼花圖案”喻指多元文化相互碰撞交流，但保留原有獨立性和分離性，兼收并存，不以形成新文化為目的。metaphors that convey more of a sense of separateness in describing this nation of immigrants.

[6] Not only in Omaha but in immigrant communities across the country,there is a process often referred to as“segmented”11segmented分割的，分段的。assimilation, in which immigrants follow different paths to incorporation122 incorporation摻入，并入。in U.S. society. These range from the classic American ideal of blending into the vast middle class,to a “downward assimilation” into an adversarial13adversarial對立的；敵對的。underclass, to a buffered14buffer緩沖；緩和。integration into “immigrant enclaves15enclave飛地（某國或某市境內(nèi)隸屬外國或外市，具有不同宗教、文化或民族的領(lǐng)土）。.”Sometimes, members of the same family end up taking sharply divergent16divergent分歧的；背道而馳的。paths, especially children and their parents.

[7] The ambivalence177 ambivalence矛盾；兩重性。of assimilation can cut both ways. Many native-born Americans also seem to harbor18harbor感到。mixed feelings about the process. As a nation,the United States increasingly promotes diversity, but there are underlying concerns that the more emphasis there is on the factors that set people apart, the more likely that society will end up di-vided.

[8] Recent data shows that Latinos has gone from just 7 million to the country’s biggest minority in just two generations. In many places, new Hispanic immigrants have tended to cluster19cluster群聚。in “niche” occupations20近年來美國工作市場日趨靈活、不穩(wěn)定性增加，人口日益增長的西班牙裔移民多教育水平低、缺乏專業(yè)技藝，因此“適合”他們的職業(yè)多為低薪、無須高等專業(yè)技術(shù)或知識。, live in segregated neighborhoods and worship in separate churches.

[9] Their heavy concentrations21concentration密集度。in certain parts of the country, their relatively close proximity22proximity鄰近。to their native lands and their sheer numbers give this wave of immigrants an unprecedented23unprecedented前所未有的；沒有先例的。potential to change the way the melting pot traditionally has worked. In effect,that allows Mexican Americans to “perpetuate24perpetuate永遠(yuǎn)保持。themselves as a separate community and even strengthen their sense of separateness if they chose to, or felt compelled to,” said David M. Kennedy,a professor of American history at Stanford University.

[10] To be sure, assimilation today often follows the same pattern that it has for generations. The children of immigrants, especially those who were born in the United States or came here at a young age, tend to learn English quickly and adopt American habits.Often they end up serving as translators for their parents.

[11] But there are important differences in the way immigrants adapt these days, and the in fl uences on them can be double-edged25double-edged同時有好壞兩方面影響的。. Gaps in income,education and poverty levels between new immigrants and the native-born are widening, and many of the newcomers are becoming stuck26stuck無法擺脫的。in dead-end27dead-end沒有前途的。jobs with little upward mobility28upward mobility（個人、社會群體、階層）向更高層社會的流動。.

[12] Previous waves of immigrants also arrived unskilled and poorly educated. Although the children of these low-income, poorly educated immigrants may grow up fluent in English,acquire more education than their parents and assimilate in other ways,research shows that “they will lag well behind other students, particularly in college attendance,” said Georges Vernez, director of the Center for Research on Immigration Policy at the RAND Corp29蘭德公司是美國一家非盈利全球智庫，先以為美國軍隊提供綜合性戰(zhàn)略研究及分析著稱，繼而又?jǐn)U展到內(nèi)外政策各方面，逐漸發(fā)展成為一個研究政治、軍事、經(jīng)濟(jì)科技、社會等各方面的綜合性思想庫。. “Today, for instance,native-born Hispanic youths are 30 percent less likely to go on to college after high school and three times less likely to graduate from college than non-Hispanic white students.”

[13] Since the children of immigrants tend to adapt much faster than their par-ents, the result is often tension and divisions within families. Immigrants who arrive as adults to escape poverty tend to view their lives here as an improvement over what they left behind, but their children often compare their circumstances to those of other Americans and fi nd themselves lacking30lacking缺乏；不足。.

[14] Some gravitate31gravitate吸引。toward a growing gang culture32gang culture幫派文化。幫派（gang）是指一群互相認(rèn)同的人組成的團(tuán)體，有明確的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)和內(nèi)部結(jié)構(gòu)，通常在某一社區(qū)宣布主權(quán)，進(jìn)行非法或暴力活動。幫派文化在崇尚自由的美國根深蒂固。that offers them an identity and an outlet for their alienation33alienation異化又稱社會異化，是一個社會學(xué)概念，用來描述與社區(qū)、工作環(huán)境中的他人缺乏認(rèn)同和融合的社會關(guān)系或個人心理狀態(tài)。, according to researchers. In many cases, argues University of Nebraska sociologist Lourdes Gouveia, the problem is not a lack of assimilation to American culture, but too much of it.

[15] “An attachment34attachment依戀，一種表達(dá)喜愛或忠誠的情緒聯(lián)系，存在于人與人之間或人與環(huán)境、團(tuán)體之間。to one’s home country, culture and language can be very positive” for immigrant children in U.S. schools, contends Gouveia. These attachments “help maintain a sense of identity and self-respect when the family drops in status,” as often happens when foreigners immigrate. As a result, the Venezuelan-born Gouveia said, students who are the least “assimilated” often do better in school than other immigrants and sometimes top even the native born.

[16] The United States should not be abandoning a concept―the Melting Pot―that has served the country well for generations, helping to maintain unity through two world wars. The elaboration35elaboration詳細(xì)闡述。of an American political culture that guarantees freedoms but also respects diversity is inevitably a challenge in an era when so many people of such different backgrounds are coming together.

[17] Noting the increased ethnic diversity in the United States and other advanced countries due to rising immigration, Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam said the consequence in the long run, “successful immigrant societies will create new, cross-cutting36cross-cut橫切，交錯；跨領(lǐng)域。forms of solidarity and more encompassing37encompass包含，包羅萬象。identities and at the end we shall see that the challenge is best met not by making ‘them’ like ‘us,’ but rather by creating a new, more capacious38capacious氣度宏大的。sense of ‘we.’” ■

夜幕降臨，奧馬哈南部一所小房子內(nèi)，瑪麗亞·哈辛托在廚房里為丈夫和五個孩子做晚餐要吃的玉米餅。這個社區(qū)大部分都是墨西哥移民，和他們一樣，哈辛托一家融合了新老兩種文明。

[2]哈辛托只會說西班牙語，她認(rèn)為保持家里的墨西哥傳統(tǒng)十分有必要。哈辛托的大兒子今年11歲，會說英語和西班牙語，身穿舊金山49人隊T恤，平時給人送報紙，他走進(jìn)客廳和弟弟妹妹們一起看《辛普森一家》。

[3]從很多方面來說，哈辛托一家的經(jīng)歷正是一代代移民逐漸融入美國主流社會的縮影。這對奧馬哈這座城市來說已經(jīng)不再新鮮，它從20世紀(jì)初以來就吸引了大批來自捷克、德國和愛爾蘭的移民。

[4]美國文化依舊強(qiáng)勢，且不論其好壞，它至少在方方面面影響著美國本土人民和世界其他國家的人們。美國化曾被視作不可抵擋，但是近年來由于多個因素的綜合作用，移民們?nèi)绻敢獾脑?，可以選擇抗拒美國化。

[5]事實上，同化的概念現(xiàn)在正經(jīng)受著前所未有的質(zhì)疑。一些社會學(xué)家認(rèn)為，（美式）熔爐基本等同于“盎格魯化”，同化對社會或者移民自己來說也不一定總是好事?，F(xiàn)今社會注重多樣性和民族性，移民們和大熔爐完全劃清界限比以往任何時候都容易。就連熔爐這個隱喻本身也在發(fā)生變化，它已經(jīng)完全被眾多移民支持組織和少數(shù)族裔群體所拋棄。他們現(xiàn)在更喜歡“沙拉拼盤”和“拼花圖案”這樣的叫法，因為描述起美國這個移民國家，這兩個比喻更能傳達(dá)一種分離感。

[6]不僅在奧馬哈，遍布美國的移民社區(qū)都存在一種叫做“部分同化”的現(xiàn)象，在這個過程中，移民融入美國社會有不同的途徑。有美國傳統(tǒng)的最理想化途徑，融入龐大的中產(chǎn)階級；有“向下同化”，即發(fā)展為對立的底層階級；還有所謂的緩沖融合，“移民飛地”。有時甚至一個家庭中不同成員都會遵循截然不同的途徑，孩子和父母之間尤其如此。

[7]同化的矛盾可以有兩種影響。許多本土出生的美國人對同化的態(tài)度也似乎是矛盾的。作為一個國家來說，美國越來越主張多樣化，但是有人隱隱擔(dān)憂，越是強(qiáng)調(diào)人們之間的差異性，整個社會最終就越有可能分裂。

[8]近期數(shù)據(jù)顯示，拉美裔移民僅用了兩代人的時間，就從原來的700萬人口躍升為美國人數(shù)最多的少數(shù)族裔群體。在不少地方，來自拉丁美洲的新移民都傾向于群集到“對口”的行業(yè)，住在本族群社區(qū)，去單獨的教堂禮拜。

[9]這些新移民在美國一些地區(qū)高度聚集，與自己的家鄉(xiāng)離得很近，且人數(shù)龐大，有可能改變大熔爐傳統(tǒng)運(yùn)作模式，而這在之前是不可能的。事實上，這種現(xiàn)狀使得墨西哥裔美國人現(xiàn)在可以“把自己固化為獨立的團(tuán)體，如果愿意或者感到必須的話，甚至可以借此強(qiáng)化自己的分離感”，斯坦福大學(xué)美國歷史學(xué)教授戴維·M.肯尼迪這樣說道。

[10]可以確定的是，今天的同化模式，與幾代以來一直延續(xù)的模式基本相同。移民的子女，尤其是生在美國或者幼時就來到美國的那些孩子，一般短時間內(nèi)就可以掌握英語，養(yǎng)成美式習(xí)慣。很多情況下，他們成了自己父母的翻譯。

[11]但是如今移民適應(yīng)美國社會的方式發(fā)生了重要的改變，這些改變對移民的影響有利有弊。新移民和本土美國人在收入、教育和貧困水平方面的差距在擴(kuò)大，許多新移民擺脫不了毫無前途的工作，這些工作幾乎沒有升遷的機(jī)會。

[12]之前的幾批移民還欠缺技能，受教育水平也較低。這些移民的收入和教育水平低下，盡管他們的孩子可能說著流利的英語長大，比父母受到更多的教育，并以其他方式融入了美國社會，但蘭德公司移民政策研究中心主任喬治斯·韋內(nèi)茲稱，研究表明，“移民子女遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)落后于其他學(xué)生，尤其是在大學(xué)入學(xué)率方面。例如，當(dāng)前美國本土出生的拉美族裔青年高中畢業(yè)后進(jìn)入大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)的機(jī)率比非拉美族裔白人學(xué)生低30%，大學(xué)畢業(yè)率也只有他們的三分之一?！?/p>

[13]移民子女的適應(yīng)速度總是比父母快，結(jié)果常常造成家庭內(nèi)部的緊張和分歧。在移民美國以逃避貧困的成人看來，他們在美國的生活比在老家好，但是他們的孩子經(jīng)常對比自己與其他美國人的生活，覺得自身有所匱乏。

[14]研究者稱，有些孩子受到日益滋長的幫派文化吸引，企圖從其中找到認(rèn)同、發(fā)泄被異化的情緒。內(nèi)布拉斯加大學(xué)社會學(xué)家洛德斯·戈維亞稱，很多情況下，問題不在于他們沒有充分融入美國文化，而是在于融入過深。

[15]戈維亞說，對美國校園里的移民子女來說，“對祖國、祖國文化和母語的依戀其實是件好事?！蓖鈬泼窠?jīng)常會面臨家庭社會地位的下降，“這些依戀可以使他們保持自我認(rèn)同和自尊”。戈維亞出生于委內(nèi)瑞拉，她說，“同化程度”最低的學(xué)生通常比其他移民學(xué)生在校表現(xiàn)要好，有時還會優(yōu)于美國本土學(xué)生。

[16]“大熔爐”的概念已經(jīng)盛行了幾代人的時間，使美國經(jīng)歷兩次世界大戰(zhàn)始終團(tuán)結(jié)統(tǒng)一，不應(yīng)該被擯棄。美國政治文化保證人民自由，同樣也尊重多樣性。當(dāng)今時代，背景如此不同的人們匯聚在一起，如何闡述這種文化不可避免地成為一個挑戰(zhàn)。

[17]由于移民趨勢上升，美國及其他發(fā)達(dá)國家的民族多樣性日益加強(qiáng)。哈佛大學(xué)政治科學(xué)家羅伯特·帕特南談及其長期影響：“成功的移民社會創(chuàng)造出新的相互影響的團(tuán)結(jié)形式以及更具包容性的認(rèn)同感，最終我們將看到，面對挑戰(zhàn)，最好的方法不是讓‘他們’像‘我們’，而是創(chuàng)造全新的、內(nèi)涵更豐富的‘我們’?！?□

（譯者單位：北京航空航天大學(xué)外國語學(xué)院）

Immigrants Shunning1Idea of Assimilation

ByWilliam Branigin

1 shun避開；排斥。