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[00:00.05]Economic experts and business owners in the United States say immigrant workers have helped keep the country from falling into a recession.
美國的經(jīng)濟專家和企業(yè)老板表示移民工人幫助了美國避免陷入衰退。
[00:09.72]Economists predicted the United States economy would suffer when the country's central bank started raising the baseline rate for lending money about two years ago.
在大約兩年前，當(dāng)美國中央銀行開始提高貸款基準(zhǔn)利率時, 經(jīng)濟學(xué)家就預(yù)測美國經(jīng)濟將受到影響。
[00:22.05]Instead, businesses have hired more workers.
相反，企業(yè)雇傭了更多的工人。
[00:25.97]The unemployment rate has gone down.
失業(yè)率已經(jīng)下降了。
[00:28.95]But rates have continued to rise.
但利率仍在繼續(xù)上升。
[00:32.17]The reason, experts say?
專家問道：究竟是為什么呢？
[00:35.17]People like Luisana Silva and Mariel Marrero, immigrants from Venezuela.
像路易薩娜·席爾瓦和瑪麗埃爾·馬雷羅這樣的人是來自委內(nèi)瑞拉的移民。
[00:41.60]Silva, who is 25, lives in South Carolina and works for a rug company.
席爾瓦現(xiàn)年25歲，住在南卡羅來納州，在一家地毯公司工作。
[00:48.77]She loads heavy carpets onto trucks for delivery.
她把沉重的地毯裝上卡車送貨。
[00:52.95]Silva, her husband and their 7-year-old daughter left Venezuela, walked through dangerous lands before arriving at the United States border city of Brownsville, Texas.
席爾瓦、她的丈夫和他們7歲的女兒離開委內(nèi)瑞拉，穿過危險的土地，到達美國邊境城市德克薩斯州的布朗斯維爾。
[01:06.80]They asked for asylum from the United States, claiming the need to escape political and economic difficulties at home.
他們向美國尋求庇護，聲稱需要逃離國內(nèi)的政治和經(jīng)濟困境。
[01:16.72]Silva and her husband received work permits last year and found jobs.
席爾瓦和她的丈夫去年獲得了工作許可，并找到了工作。
[01:23.70]Silva earns enough to pay for a living space, buy food for her family, put fuel in her car and send money back to her parents in Venezuela.
席爾瓦賺的錢足夠支付房租，為家人買食物，給汽車加油，并把錢寄回委內(nèi)瑞拉的父母。
[01:35.12]She wants to help her family back home and build a life for herself in the U.S.
她想幫助她的家人來美國，并在美國建立自己的生活。
[01:40.95]Mariel Marrero, 32, left Venezuela in 2016 after receiving death threats for voicing opposition to President Nicolas Maduro.
32歲的瑪麗埃爾·馬雷羅于2016年離開委內(nèi)瑞拉，此前她因反對總統(tǒng)尼古拉斯·馬杜羅而收到死亡威脅。
[01:54.22]She lived in Panama and El Salvador before arriving in the U.S. and asking for asylum.
在抵達美國并尋求庇護之前，她曾在巴拿馬和薩爾瓦多生活過。
[02:02.42]The U.S. is still considering her case.
美國仍在考慮她的情況。
[02:06.35]For now, Marrero has a short-term work permit.
目前，馬雷羅有一份短期工作許可證。
[02:10.97]She lives in a small city outside of Miami, Florida, where many Venezuelan immigrants live.
她住在佛羅里達州邁阿密郊外的一個小城市，那里居住著許多委內(nèi)瑞拉移民。
[02:17.82]Marrero has worked several small jobs.
馬雷羅做過幾份小工作。
[02:21.62]She is now able to save about $200 each month to send to her family back in Venezuela.
現(xiàn)在，她每個月可以攢下大約200美元寄給委內(nèi)瑞拉的家人。
[02:29.62]Heidi Shierholz is president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D. C.
海蒂·謝爾霍爾茨是華盛頓特區(qū)經(jīng)濟政策研究所所長。
[02:39.02]She is also a former chief economist at the U.S. Labor Department.
她也是美國勞工部的前首席經(jīng)濟學(xué)家。
[02:46.02]She said economic observers considered it "something of a mystery" that the U.S. had strong job growth but also saw inflation drop while interest rates rose.
她說，經(jīng)濟觀察人士認(rèn)為，美國就業(yè)增長強勁，但在利率上升的同時，通脹也有所下降，這“有點神秘”。
[03:02.52]Most believed the U.S. would see more unemployment.
大多數(shù)人認(rèn)為美國會出現(xiàn)更多的失業(yè)。
[03:08.17]"The immigration numbers being higher than what we had thought — that really does pretty much solve that puzzle,'' Shierholz said.
謝爾霍爾茨說：“移民人數(shù)比我們預(yù)想的要多--這在很大程度上解決了這個難題。”
[03:19.30]Still, immigration is set to be a central issue of this year's U.S. presidential election.
盡管如此，移民問題仍將是今年美國總統(tǒng)大選的核心問題。
[03:29.20]Former President Donald Trump is the leading candidate opposing President Joe Biden in the race.
前總統(tǒng)唐納·德特朗普是在競選中與總統(tǒng)喬·拜登對壘的主要候選人。
[03:38.55]He is criticizing Biden over what he believes is a lack of control at the southern U.S. border.
他批評拜登缺乏對美國南部邊境的控制。
[03:47.80]Trump has described migrants as criminals and has said they are "poisoning the blood" of America.
特朗普將移民描述為罪犯，并表示他們正在“污染美國血液。”
[03:56.55]Trump says he wants to finish building the border wall that was a big part of his presidential campaign in 2016.
特朗普表示，他希望完成邊境墻的修建，這會是他2016年總統(tǒng)競選的重要部分。
[04:07.62]Back in 2019, the Congressional Budget Office estimated net immigration – the number of new people minus those who left – would be about 1 million in the year 2023.
早在2019年，國會預(yù)算辦公室便估計，到2023年，凈移民——新移民人數(shù)減去離開人口的人數(shù)——將達到100萬人左右。
[04:24.95]The actual number turned out to be 3.3 million.
實際數(shù)字則是330萬。
[04:31.67]Many employers have welcomed the new arrivals.
許多雇主對新來的人表示歡迎。
[04:37.02]When the United States ended some of its COVID-19 restrictions and businesses re-opened, business owners found a changed workforce.
當(dāng)美國結(jié)束了對新冠肺炎的一些限制，企業(yè)重新開張時，企業(yè)主們發(fā)現(xiàn)勞動力發(fā)生了變化。
[04:49.40]The number of native-born Americans in their "prime working years" – ages 25 to 54 -- had dropped.
年齡在25歲到54歲之間的“黃金工作年齡段”的美國本土出生人口數(shù)量有所下降。
[05:00.32]Many Americans had aged out of that group and were nearing retirement.
許多美國人已經(jīng)不再屬于這一群體，即將退休。
[05:08.12]This group's numbers have shrunk by 770,000 since February 2020, just before COVID-19 hit.
在2020年2月新冠疫情爆發(fā)前夕，這一群體的數(shù)量就已經(jīng)減少了77萬人。
[05:19.67]But over the past four years, immigrants have filled that gap.
但在過去的四年里，移民填補了這一空白。
[05:26.25]The number of "prime-age" workers has increased by 2.8 million.
“黃金年齡”勞動者增加了280萬人。
[05:33.57]Ninety-six percent of those workers were born outside the United States.
這些工人中有96%出生在美國以外的地方。
[05:41.30]The Economic Policy Institute said immigrants accounted for almost 19 percent of the U.S. labor force in 2023.
經(jīng)濟政策研究所表示，2023年移民占美國勞動力的近19%。
[05:54.22]That is a record number.
這是一個創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的數(shù)字。
[05:57.67]Jan Gautam is the top leader of a hotel business in Orlando, Florida.
簡·高塔姆是佛羅里達州奧蘭多市一家酒店企業(yè)的最高領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人。
[06:03.62]He said most Americans do not want to take jobs cleaning hotel rooms in his company's 44 hotels.
他說，大多數(shù)美國人不想擔(dān)任在他的公司44家酒店打掃房間的工作。
[06:13.72]He said 85 percent of his 3,500 employees are immigrants.
他說，他的3500名員工中有85%是移民。
[06:21.00]"Without employees, you are broken," said Gautam, who is an immigrant from India.
“沒有員工，你就完蛋了，”來自印度的移民高塔姆說。
[06:27.17]In the northeastern American state of Maine, half of the workers at the Flood Brothers dairy farm are immigrants.
在美國東北部的緬因州，弗拉德兄弟奶牛場的工人中有一半是移民。
[06:36.05]Jenni Tilton-Flood is a partner in the farm.
珍妮·蒂爾頓-弗拉德是農(nóng)場的合伙人。
[06:40.12]She said immigrant workers are skilled at feeding cows and collecting milk – almost 70,000 liters per day.
她說，移民工人擅長飼養(yǎng)奶牛和收集牛奶-每天近7萬升。
[06:50.37]"We would not have an economy, in Maine or in the U.S., if we did not have highly skilled labor that comes from outside of this country," Tilton-Flood said.
蒂爾頓-弗拉德說：“如果我們沒有來自國外的高技能勞動力，我們緬因州或美國的經(jīng)濟就不會發(fā)展。”
[07:02.67]Wendy Edelberg and Tara Watson are economists at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
溫迪·埃德爾伯格和塔拉·沃森是華盛頓布魯金斯學(xué)會的經(jīng)濟學(xué)家。
[07:12.75]They wrote in a study that over the past two years, immigrants permitted the U.S. to generate jobs without pushing inflation higher and causing a recession.
他們在一項研究中寫道，在過去兩年里，移民使得美國在不提高通脹和導(dǎo)致經(jīng)濟衰退的情況下創(chuàng)造就業(yè)機會。
[07:27.57]They added that the U.S. can now absorb up to 200,000 new jobs per month without pushing up inflation.
他們補充說，美國現(xiàn)在每月可以吸收多達20萬個新工作崗位，而不會推高通脹。
[07:38.90]In the past, economists said the number of new workers could not go higher than 100,000 per month without causing an inflation increase.
過去，經(jīng)濟學(xué)家們曾說過，每月新增工人的數(shù)量不能超過 10 萬，否則就會導(dǎo)致通脹上升。
[07:53.12]Douglas Holtz-Eakin once led the Congressional Budget Office.
道格拉斯·霍爾茨-埃金曾領(lǐng)導(dǎo)國會預(yù)算辦公室。
[07:58.92]He said: "The way to solve an inflation crisis is to endure an immigration crisis."
他說：“解決通脹危機的方法是忍受移民危機。
[08:08.25]Observers agree that immigration as it stands in the United States can be difficult for state and local governments, even if it has helped the economy.
觀察人士一致認(rèn)為，美國目前的移民狀況即使幫助了經(jīng)濟，對各州和地方政府來說可能仍造成困難。
[08:22.95]About 27 percent of the 3.3 million immigrants who came to the United States last year did so as "lawful permanent residents.
去年來到美國的330萬移民中，約有27%的人是以“合法永久居民”的身份進入美國的。
[08:36.82]" The rest – 2.4 million – either came without permission, overstayed their visas, are waiting for their cases to be heard in immigration court or are part of a program that lets them stay temporarily and sometimes work in the country.
其余的240萬人要么是未經(jīng)許可來的，要么是簽證過期，要么是在等待移民法庭審理他們的案件，要么是一個項目的一部分，該項目允許他們暫時居留，有時還會在美國工作。
[08:59.62]Some experts say immigrants who come to the U.S. do important work that many Americans will not do.
一些專家說，來到美國的移民做了許多美國人不會做的重要工作。
[09:09.22]They are also likely to start new businesses.
他們還可能開始新的業(yè)務(wù)。
[09:14.47]While the experts debate what to do, Marrero, the Venezuelan immigrant living in Florida, said she feels lucky to be in the country.
就在專家們爭論不休的時候，居住在佛羅里達州的委內(nèi)瑞拉移民馬雷羅說，她覺得能在這個國家生活很幸運。
[09:27.55]"I imagine having my own company, my house, helping my family in a more comfortable way," Marrero said.
“我想象擁有自己的公司、自己的房子，以更舒適的方式幫助我的家人，”馬雷羅說。
[09:38.22]I'm Caty Weaver.
我是凱蒂·韋弗。
[09:39.82]And I'm Dan Friedell.
我是丹·弗里德爾。
