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The percentage of immigrants (including those unlawfully present) in the United States has been creeping upward for years.
美国移民的比例（包括非法移民）连续数年呈增长趋势.
At 12.6 percent, it is now higher than at any point since the mid1920s.
现已达到12.6%，比20世纪20年代中期以来的任何时候都要高。
We are not about to go back to the days when Congress openly worried about inferior races polluting America’s bloodstream.
我们不是要回到国会公开表示担忧等民族污染美国血统的时代。
But once again we are wondering whether we have too many of the wrong sort of newcomers.
但是我们再一次想知道美国是否有太多不适合的新移民。
Their loudest critics argue that the new wave of immigrants cannot, and indeed do not want to, fit in as previous generations did.
其中声势最大的批评认为新的移民浪潮并不能像前面数代人一样真正融入，实际上他们也并不想这么做。
We now know that these racist views were wrong. In time, Italians, Romanians and members of other so-called inferior races became
exemplary Americans and contributed greatly, in ways too numerous to detail, to the building of this magnificent nation.
现在我们知道这些种族主义的观点都是错的。曾经，意大利人、罗马尼亚人以及其他所谓的“低等民族”成为美国人的楷模，并且通过不胜枚举的方
式为这个美妙国度的建设做出了伟大的贡献。
There is no reason why these new immigrants should not have the same success.
说这些新移民不能取得同样的成功毫无根据。
Although children of Mexican immigrants do better, in terms of educational and professional attainment, than their parents, UCLA
sociologist Edward Telles has found that the gains don’t continue.
尽管墨西哥移民的孩子在教育和职业成就领域比起他们的父母表现更佳，加州大学洛杉矶分校的社会学家爱德华-特列斯发现这种成就感并没有持续
性。
Indeed, the fourth generation is marginally worse off than the third. James Jackson, of the University of Michigan, has found a
similar trend among black Caribbean immigrants.
事实上，第四代要比第三代稍差一点。密歇根大学的詹姆斯-杰克逊在加勒比黑人移民中也发现了相似的趋势。
Telles fears that Mexican-Americans may be fated to follow in the footsteps of American blacks—that large parts of the community
may become mired (陷入) in a seemingly permanent state of poverty and underachievement.
特列斯担心墨西哥裔美国人可能注定会步美国黑人的后尘---社区中的大部分人将陷入贫穷和毫无建树的状态。
Like African-Americans, Mexican-Americans are increasingly relegated to (降入) segregated, substandard school, and their dropout
rate is the highest for any ethnic group in the country.
像非裔美国人一样，墨西哥裔美国人日益降入实行种族隔离政策、低标准的学校，他们的退学率在整个国家的所有民族中是最高的。
We have learned much about the foolish idea of excluding people on the presumption of ethnic/racial inferiority.
我们已经认识到在民族、种族低劣的前提下去排斥他们是多么愚蠢。
But what we have not yet learned is how to make the process of Americanization work for all.
但是我们仍然不知道如何使美国化的过程适合所有的人。
I am not talking about requiring people to learn English or to adopt American ways; those things happen pretty much on their own.
我并不是说要求所有的人都学习英语或者采取美国的方式；这些事情自然而然就会发生。
But as arguments about immigration heat up the campaign trail, we also ought to ask some broader questions about assimilation,
about how to ensure that people, once outsiders, don’t forever remain marginalized within these shores.
但是随着关于移民的争论使总统大选白热化，我们也应该提出关于融合，关于如何确保曾经的外来人口无需永远在国内边缘化等更广泛的问题。
That is a much larger question that what should happen with undocumented workers, or how best to secure the border, and it is one
that affects not only newcomers but groups that have been here for generations.
这是比无证工人的遭遇或者如何包围边境安全更重要的问题。这个问题不仅影响了新移民，而且也影响到了已经在这里时代生活的群体。
It will have more impact on our future than where we decide to set the admissions bar for the latest wave of would-be Americans.
And it would be nice if we finally got the answer right.
与现在我们队即将涌入的准美国人设定“准入点”相比，它将对我们的未来产生更大的影响。当然如果最终可以找到正确答案就太好了。
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