来源：《华盛顿邮报》
原文刊登日期：2021年4月29日
The 2020 census offers a powerful argument for immigration. The United States in the past 10 years saw the slowest population growth rate in eight decades, owing both to plummeting fertility and dwindling immigration. Demographic stagnation, and the resulting possibility of weak economic growth, threaten American vitality.
2020年的人口普查为移民提供了有力的论据。由于生育率下降和移民减少，美国过去10年的人口增长率是80年来最低的。人口的停滞，以及由此产生的经济增长乏力的可能性，威胁着美国的活力。
The census numbers give the lie, again, to the idea that this country is “full,” as President Donald Trump said, by way of justifying his assault on legal and illegal immigration, or that it has somehow reached the limits of its absorptive capacity. In fact, without robust population growth, and a steady supply of working-age strivers, there is no prospect of repairing the fraying social safety net that supports an aging population of retired Americans.
人口普查数据再次证明，美国已经“满员”的说法是谎言，唐纳德·特朗普总统曾说美国已“满员”，这是为了证明他对合法和非法移民的抨击是合理的，或者有人说美国已经达到了吸收能力的极限，这也是谎言。事实上，没有强劲的人口增长，没有稳定的适龄劳动力供给，就不可能修复支撑退休美国人老龄化人口的破旧社会保障网络。
Simply, lagging births and slowing immigration mean fewer workers, less production and the languid economic growth.
简单地说，滞后的生育和缓慢的移民意味着更少的工人，更少的生产和缓慢的经济增长。
There is little countries can do to lift their native-born birthrates; nor is it even clear why the U.S. fertility rate, which now stands substantially below the replacement rate of 2.1 babies per woman, is so low. By contrast, there is plenty the country can and should do to quicken the admission of refugees, asylum seekers and other legal immigrants. Their arrivals have slowed in recent years, at first because of the economic crisis arising from the Great Recession and later as a result of Mr. Trump’s campaign to demonize migrants, and a related cascade of bureaucratic measures designed by his administration to slash the number of newcomers.
在提高本国出生率方面，几乎各国都无能为力；也不清楚为什么美国的生育率如此之低，目前远远低于每名妇女生育2.1个孩子的替代率。相比之下，在加快接纳难民、寻求庇护者和其他合法移民方面，美国可以也应该做很多事情。近年来，移民的到来速度有所放缓，首先是因为大衰退引发的经济危机，后来是特朗普将移民妖魔化的活动，以及他的政府为削减新移民数量而设计的一系列相关官僚措施的结果。
This nation’s prosperity, pluck, ambition and enthusiastic character are the products of more than 100 million immigrants who have sought better lives in the United States since its founding. More than 70 million of them arrived in the half-century between 1965 and 2015, an era of astounding economic expansion.
这个国家的繁荣、胆识、雄心和热情性格，是1亿多移民的产物，他们自美国建国以来陆续来到美国寻求更好的生活。在1965年至2015年的半个世纪里，超过7000万移民来到美国，这是一个令人震惊的经济扩张时代。
Those skeptical at the proposition that immigration is a bulwark against falling birthrates should ponder the counterexample of Japan, where a dwindling population has contributed to a slow average annual gross domestic product growth of 1.3 percent in the decade ending in 2019. Faced with a critical labor shortage, Japan, traditionally resistant to immigrants, finally enacted a measure in 2018 to expand the number of semiskilled workers it admits each year.
那些对移民是对冲出生率下降堡垒这一观点持怀疑态度的人，应该考虑一下日本这个反例。在截至2019年的10年里，人口减少导致日本国内生产总值(gdp)的年平均增长率为1.3%，增长乏力。面对严重的劳动力短缺，传统上对移民持抵制态度的日本，终于在2018年颁布了一项措施，增加每年接纳半熟练工人的数量。
Judging by his campaign platform and rhetoric, President Biden is mindful that immigration is central to the American story, and vital to its prospects. One of his first acts upon taking office was to propose legislation that would establish a path to citizenship for some 11 million unauthorized migrants, increase annual per-country visa caps and clear impediments for employment-based green cards. In office, however, he has wavered on a promise to sharply increase the number of annual refugee admissions, which Mr. Trump had driven to record lows.
从拜登总统的竞选纲领和措辞来看，他明白移民问题是美国叙事的核心，对美国的前景至关重要。他上任后的第一件事就是提议立法，为大约1100万非法移民提供获得公民身份的途径，提高每个国家每年的签证上限，并清除就业绿卡的障碍。然而，在执政期间，他在大幅增加难民年度接收人数的承诺上摇摆不定，特朗普曾将这一数字推至历史低点。
The truth is that the United States can absorb plenty more immigration — and must, if it is to compete and thrive in the 21st century.
事实是，美国可以吸收更多的移民——如果美国要在21世纪竞争和繁荣，就必须这样做。