VOA标准英语2012--Spain's Economic Slide Hits Latin American Immigrants Hard
时间:2019-01-14 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2012年(十月)
Spain's Economic Slide Hits Latin American Immigrants Hard
During the boom years in the 1990s, Spain absorbed more than seven-million Latin-American immigrants, increasing its population by nearly 20 percent. And when the economic crisis hit in 2008, most of the jobs they came to do in construction and household work disappeared, leaving few with money to send home or even enough cash to make a call.
As a result, it is a slow morning at this cafe in Madrid’s largely Latin American Tetuan neighborhood. Ecuadorian Waitress Rosario Leon has been in Spain for 16 years. She still has a job, but she is concerned about the future for herself and her two teenaged daughters.
“It worries me a lot, and it hurts me a little, having to contemplate 1 going back to my country," said Leon. "We came here in search of a better future for our children and we managed to more or less succeed.”
But the past four years have shown just how fragile that success was. Unemployed 2 mechanic Miguel Poeda, 64, came from Ecuador 14 years ago and worked mostly at construction sites.
“I am taking the ‘Voluntary Return’ program," Poeda said. "I will get all my unemployment benefits. We are given this opportunity to be able to return home because the situation here is going from bad to worse.”
Millions of other unemployed Latin-American workers in Spain are facing the same difficult decision, as they seek help at shelters and soup kitchens, and desperately 3 look for work.
Unemployed Colombian domestic worker Blanca Africano hopes holding up a sign will help her find a job.
“Because of the crisis you can not find work. I have been in this crisis for four years already. I take care of seniors, I can take care of a baby, or I clean, I cook, I can do all the domestic chores of Spain," she said.
But her chances of finding work in Spain’s depressed 4 economy are slim.
Forty kilometers and a world away at Madrid’s Autonomous 5 University, the fate of Latin-American workers is on the mind of Economics Professor Federico Steinberg, who came to Spain as a child from Argentina.
“It is expected that an important number, I cannot give you a figure, would leave," Steinberg said. "[They] would either go to their home countries in Latin America or to other developed countries. That is going to be the only way to solve that situation because it is unlikely that we are going to see another real estate bubble in Spain for the next 30 years.”
Experts say it will not take that long to turn the country’s economy around, but after four years of recession even a few more years would be too long for many of Spain’s immigrants.
- The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate.战争的可能性太可怕了,真不堪细想。
- The consequences would be too ghastly to contemplate.后果不堪设想。
- There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
- The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。
- He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
- He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。
- When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
- His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。
- They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
- This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。