VOA慢速英语2017 美国的非洲移民数量不断上升

The United States remains 1 a popular destination for immigrants from Africa, according to the U.S.-based Pew Research Center.

根据美国皮尤研究中心的统计，美国仍然是最多非洲移民前往的目的地。

The number of African immigrants coming to the U.S. has more than doubled since 2000, Pew said in a new report.

皮尤在一份新报告中说，美国的非洲移民人数自2000年以来增加了一倍多。

The organization said that as of 2015, 2.1 million African-born people were living in the United States. That number is up from 880,000 in 2000. Back in 1970, there were just 80,000.

该组织说，截至2015年，有210万在非洲出生的人居住在美国，相比于2000年的88万人有很大的上升。而1970年时该人数只有8万。

Monica Anderson is a research associate at Pew and the author of the study. She said one reason for the large increase is that many immigrants are refugees from Africa.

莫妮卡安德森是皮尤的研究员和这项研究的发起者。她说，人数大量增加的一个原因是许多移民是来自非洲的难民。

She noted 2 that in 1980, only 1 percent of refugees admitted to the United States were from Africa. Today, that share is about 37 percent.

她指出，1980年只有1％的非洲难民被允许入境美国。今天，这个比例约达37％。

“That is one major factor that is driving the growth of African immigrants, but it doesn't tell the entire story," Anderson told VOA in an interview.

“这是推动非洲移民增长的一个主要因素，但它并不是全部，”安德森在接受美国之音采访时说。

She said that over the years, certain U.S. areas have developed large, established populations for African immigrants.

她说，多年来在美国某些特定的地区，非洲移民已经建立庞大的人口群。

One of those is the Midwestern state of Minnesota. The state is home to about 25,000 people of Somali origin. This is about one-fifth of the whole foreign-born population of the state.

其中一个地区是中西部的明尼苏达州。这个州是索马里人约25000人的家园。人数大约是该州中在外国出生人口的五分之一。

“In different clusters in the U.S., African immigrants are really reshaping the immigrant population there,” Anderson said.

“在美国不同的集群中，非洲移民真的在重塑这里的移民人口结构，”安德森说。

Another example is the neighboring state of South Dakota, which has large refugee communities from Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia. Overall, Africans make up about 15 percent of South Dakota's foreign-born population, according to Pew.

另一个例子是邻近的南达科他州，它有来自苏丹、索马里和埃塞俄比亚的大量难民社区。总体而言，Pew的数据表明非洲人占南达科他州外国出生人口的15％。

The top states where African immigrants live are Texas, New York, California and Maryland.

最多非洲移民居住在德克萨斯州、纽约州、加利福尼亚州和马里兰州。

African immigrants in the U.S. include tens of thousands of refugees from Somalia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Eritrea, Pew said. But it also includes highly-educated doctors, engineers and others seeking a better life in America.

皮尤说，在美国的非洲移民包括来自索马里、苏丹、刚果民主共和国和厄立特里亚的成千上万的难民。但其中也包括受过高等教育的医生、工程师和到美国寻求更好的生活的人。

Randy Capps is the director of research for U.S. programs at the Migration 3 Policy Institute. He said that as of 2013, 38 percent of sub-Saharan African immigrants had a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 28 percent of all U.S. immigrants.

兰迪·卡斯是美国移民政策研究所的研究主任。他说，截至2013年，38％的撒哈拉以南非洲移民拥有学士学位或更高的学历。相比之下，所有美国移民中有这样学历的人数比例只有28％。

But despite the increases, Africans still make up a relatively 4 small amount of the total U.S. immigrant population. Capps said there are both historical and geographic 5 reasons for this.

但是，尽管非洲人数在增加，非洲人占美国移民总人口比重仍然相对较小。卡斯说，这里面夹杂着历史和地理因素。

“It's a long distance from Africa, and the number of people in Africa with sufficient incomes to migrate that far has been relatively small,” he said.

“这离非洲很远，有足够收入移民的非洲人数相对较少，”他说。

He added that the path for legal African migration to the U.S. was not fully 6 opened until the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act.

他补充说，在1965年《移民和国籍法》出台之前，移民到美国的合法道路并没有完全开放。

The act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, removed immigration quota 7 systems based on national identity. This allowed for immigrants of all nationalities to be accepted equally. The act also made it easier for skilled immigrants to migrate to the United States.

该法案由林登·约翰逊总统签署为法律，根据国家身份取消了移民配额制度。这使得所有民族的移民得到平等的对待。这一行为也使人才移民更容易迁移到美国。

Words in This Story

factor – n. something that affects a particular situation, event, etc.

cluster – n. group of things or people that are close to each other

quota – n. official limit on the amount of people allowed