英语 英语 日语 日语 韩语 韩语 法语 法语 德语 德语 西班牙语 西班牙语 意大利语 意大利语 阿拉伯语 阿拉伯语 葡萄牙语 葡萄牙语 越南语 越南语 俄语 俄语 芬兰语 芬兰语 泰语 泰语 泰语 丹麦语 泰语 对外汉语

VOA新闻杂志2024--Immigrant Workers Help Prevent Economic Troubles in US

时间:2024-04-22 02:08来源:互联网 提供网友:nan   字体: [ ]
    (单词翻译:双击或拖选)

Immigrant Workers Help Prevent Economic Troubles in US

  Economic experts and business owners in the United States say immigrant workers have helped keep the country from falling into a recession.

  Economists2 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.

  Instead, businesses have hired more workers. The unemployment rate has gone down. But rates have continued to rise.

  The reason, experts say? People like Luisana Silva and Mariel Marrero, immigrants from Venezuela.

  Silva, who is 25, lives in South Carolina and works for a rug company. She loads heavy carpets onto trucks for delivery. 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. They asked for asylum3 from the United States, claiming the need to escape political and economic difficulties at home.

  Silva and her husband received work permits last year and found jobs. 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. She wants to help her family back home and build a life for herself in the U.S.

  Mariel Marrero, 32, left Venezuela in 2016 after receiving death threats for voicing opposition4 to President Nicolas Maduro. She lived in Panama and El Salvador before arriving in the U.S. and asking for asylum.

  The U.S. is still considering her case. For now, Marrero has a short-term work permit. She lives in a small city outside of Miami, Florida, where many Venezuelan immigrants live. Marrero has worked several small jobs. She is now able to save about $200 each month to send to her family back in Venezuela.

  Heidi Shierholz is president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. She is also a former chief economist1 at the U.S. Labor5 Department. 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. Most believed the U.S. would see more unemployment.

  "The immigration numbers being higher than what we had thought — that really does pretty much solve that puzzle,'' Shierholz said.

  Election issue

  Still, immigration is set to be a central issue of this year's U.S. presidential election.

  Former President Donald Trump7 is the leading candidate opposing President Joe Biden in the race. He is criticizing Biden over what he believes is a lack of control at the southern U.S. border. Trump has described migrants as criminals and has said they are "poisoning the blood" of America. Trump says he wants to finish building the border wall that was a big part of his presidential campaign in 2016.

  Wave of migration6

  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. The actual number turned out to be 3.3 million.

  Many employers have welcomed the new arrivals.

  When the United States ended some of its COVID-19 restrictions8 and businesses re-opened, business owners found a changed workforce9. The number of native-born Americans in their "prime working years" – ages 25 to 54 -- had dropped. Many Americans had aged10 out of that group and were nearing retirement11. This group's numbers have shrunk by 770,000 since February 2020, just before COVID-19 hit.

  But over the past four years, immigrants have filled that gap. The number of "prime-age" workers has increased by 2.8 million. Ninety-six percent of those workers were born outside the United States.

  The Economic Policy Institute said immigrants accounted for almost 19 percent of the U.S. labor force in 2023. That is a record number.

  Jan Gautam is the top leader of a hotel business in Orlando, Florida. He said most Americans do not want to take jobs cleaning hotel rooms in his company's 44 hotels. He said 85 percent of his 3,500 employees are immigrants.

  "Without employees, you are broken," said Gautam, who is an immigrant from India.

  In the northeastern American state of Maine, half of the workers at the Flood Brothers dairy farm are immigrants. Jenni Tilton-Flood is a partner in the farm. She said immigrant workers are skilled at feeding cows and collecting milk – almost 70,000 liters per day.

  "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.

  Wendy Edelberg and Tara Watson are economists at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. 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. They added that the U.S. can now absorb up to 200,000 new jobs per month without pushing up inflation.

  In the past, economists said the number of new workers could not go higher than 100,000 per month without causing an inflation increase.

  Douglas Holtz-Eakin once led the Congressional Budget Office. He said: "The way to solve an inflation crisis is to endure an immigration crisis."

  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.

  About 27 percent of the 3.3 million immigrants who came to the United States last year did so as "lawful12 permanent residents." 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.

  Some experts say immigrants who come to the U.S. do important work that many Americans will not do. They are also likely to start new businesses.

  While the experts debate what to do, Marrero, the Venezuelan immigrant living in Florida, said she feels lucky to be in the country.

  "I imagine having my own company, my house, helping13 my family in a more comfortable way," Marrero said.

  Words in This Story

  baseline (interest)rate –n. the official money-lending rate banks charge each other; many other interest charges are based on this number

  hire –v. to offer a person a job

  rug –n. a floor covering made of fibers14 woven together

  puzzle –n. a game played by fitting pieces together to form a shape or an image

  retirement –n. the time when a person stops working or going to a job permanently15

  gap –n. a space between two things, such as a starting point and a destination

  recession –n. a period of time where a country's economy does not grow and in fact its output decreases slightly

  absorb –v. to pick something wet up with a piece of fabric16 or a sponge

  endure –v. to suffer through or undergo something difficult for a period of time

  resident –n. a person who lives in a place, such as a city, country or neighborhood


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 economist AuhzVs     
n.经济学家,经济专家,节俭的人
参考例句:
  • He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
  • He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家,自以为什么都懂。
2 economists 2ba0a36f92d9c37ef31cc751bca1a748     
n.经济学家,经济专家( economist的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
  • Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 asylum DobyD     
n.避难所,庇护所,避难
参考例句:
  • The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
  • Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。
4 opposition eIUxU     
n.反对,敌对
参考例句:
  • The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
  • The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。
5 labor P9Tzs     
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦
参考例句:
  • We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
  • He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后,他已经疲惫不堪了。
6 migration mDpxj     
n.迁移,移居,(鸟类等的)迁徙
参考例句:
  • Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
  • He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。
7 trump LU1zK     
n.王牌,法宝;v.打出王牌,吹喇叭
参考例句:
  • He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
  • The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手,作为他的王牌。
8 restrictions 81e12dac658cfd4c590486dd6f7523cf     
约束( restriction的名词复数 ); 管制; 制约因素; 带限制性的条件(或规则)
参考例句:
  • I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
  • a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制
9 workforce workforce     
n.劳动大军,劳动力
参考例句:
  • A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
  • A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。
10 aged 6zWzdI     
adj.年老的,陈年的
参考例句:
  • He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了,也老点了。
  • He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老,然而记忆力还好。
11 retirement TWoxH     
n.退休,退职
参考例句:
  • She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
  • I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。
12 lawful ipKzCt     
adj.法律许可的,守法的,合法的
参考例句:
  • It is not lawful to park in front of a hydrant.在消火栓前停车是不合法的。
  • We don't recognised him to be the lawful heir.我们不承认他为合法继承人。
13 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
14 fibers 421d63991f1d1fc8826d6e71d5e15f53     
光纤( fiber的名词复数 ); (织物的)质地; 纤维,纤维物质
参考例句:
  • Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上,以硫酸钠为凝固剂,对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝,制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
  • Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。
15 permanently KluzuU     
adv.永恒地,永久地,固定不变地
参考例句:
  • The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
  • The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。
16 fabric 3hezG     
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织
参考例句:
  • The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
  • I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。
本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎点击提交分享给大家。
------分隔线----------------------------
TAG标签:   VOA英语  慢速英语  新闻杂志
顶一下
(0)
0%
踩一下
(0)
0%
最新评论 查看所有评论
发表评论 查看所有评论
请自觉遵守互联网相关的政策法规,严禁发布色情、暴力、反动的言论。
评价:
表情:
验证码:
听力搜索
推荐频道
论坛新贴