VOA慢速英語：移民美國的非洲人口持續(xù)增長

African Immigration to US Keeps Rising

移民美國的非洲人口持續(xù)增長

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

根據(jù)美國皮尤研究中心統(tǒng)計(jì)，美國仍然是非洲移民的熱門目的地。

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

皮尤研究中心在一份新報(bào)告中表示，抵達(dá)美國的非洲移民自2000年以來已經(jīng)翻了一倍多。

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.

該組織表示，截至2015年，有210萬非洲出生的人口居住在美國。這一數(shù)字是從2000年的8.8萬增長上來的。回顧1970年，該數(shù)字僅為8萬。

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(Monica Anderson)是皮尤研究中心的一名研究員，也是這項(xiàng)研究的作者。她說，這一數(shù)字大幅增長的原因之一就是很多移民都是來自非洲的難民。

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

她指出在1980年，只有1%批準(zhǔn)入境的移民來自非洲。如今這一份額約為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.

安德森在接受美國之音采訪時(shí)表示：“這是推動非洲移民增長的一個(gè)主要因素，但是不是全部因素。”

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

她說，美國部分地區(qū)多年來已經(jīng)發(fā)展出龐大的非洲移民既有人口。

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.

其中之一就是中西部的明尼蘇達(dá)州。該州是大約2.5萬索馬里出生人口的家園，占到了該州所有外國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.

安德森表示：“非洲移民已經(jīng)重塑了美國不同群族中的移民人口。”

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.

另一個(gè)例子就是鄰近的南達(dá)科他州，這里有大量來自蘇丹、索馬里和埃塞爾比亞的難民社區(qū)。根據(jù)皮尤研究中心的數(shù)據(jù)，非洲人總計(jì)占到了南達(dá)科他州外國出生人口的15%。

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

非洲移民居住最多的州是德克薩斯州、紐約州、加州以及馬里蘭州。

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.

皮尤研究中心表示，美國的非洲移民包括數(shù)萬名來自索馬里、蘇丹、剛果民主共和國和厄立特里亞的難民，但是也包括受過高等教育的醫(yī)生、工程師，以及到美國需求更好生活的其他人士。

Randy Capps is the director of research for U.S. programs at the Migration 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.

藍(lán)迪·卡普斯(Randy Capps)是美國移民政策研究所美國項(xiàng)目的研究主任。他說，截至2013年，38%的撒哈拉以南非洲移民擁有學(xué)士學(xué)位或更高學(xué)歷，相比之下，在所有美國移民中，這一比例為28%。

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

但是盡管有所增長，非洲人仍然只占據(jù)美國移民總?cè)丝谙鄬^小的數(shù)量。卡普斯表示，這有歷史和地理原因。

"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.

他說，”非洲距離美國很遠(yuǎn)，非洲有足夠收入移民這么遠(yuǎn)的人數(shù)一直相對較少。”

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

他補(bǔ)充說，非洲移民美國的合法途徑并沒有完全開放，直到《1965年移民與國籍法》出臺。

The act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, removed immigration quota 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.

該法案由林登·約翰遜(Lyndon Johnson)總統(tǒng)簽署成為法律，它取消了基于民族面貌的移民配額制度。這使得所有民族的移民得到了平等待遇。該法案也使技術(shù)移民到美國更為容易。

I'm Bryan Lynn.

我是布萊恩·林恩。