GRE双语趣味阅读 英国正步入种族多样化

2016年09月07日10:00 来源：互联网

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Britain Measuring diversity——The London effect

英国衡量种族多样化：伦敦效应

Britain is becoming more like its capital city

英国渐渐成为一个大都市

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Milton Keynes, a new town of 249,000 people some50 miles from London, is famous among Britons for its American-style road grid, its bright high-modernist shopping mall and an unfortunate sculpture of cows made in concrete and fiberglass. But these pleasant and dull acres of suburbia have become a lot more colorful of late. Competing with the chain stores of the mall, there is now a collection of stalls selling African and Asian food. In the sun of a weekday afternoon, women in multi-colored kaftans gossip in the spacious squares and underpasses. Milton Keynes now has some of the “vibrancy” of multicultural London.

米尔顿凯恩斯(MILTON KEYNES)这个新兴小镇，离伦敦只有50米，拥有249,000人口，其美国风格的道路布局，明亮超级摩登的购物商场，用混泥土和玻璃纤维做的不吉利的牛群雕塑，在英国人中很有名。但是这些愉快，沉闷的郊区已不再是过去五颜六色的美景了。现在有许多商店与商场里的连锁商店竞争卖亚非特产。在一个平日阳光灿烂的下午，女人们身着土耳其长袍在宽阔的广场，低下通道聊天。米尔顿凯恩斯现在带有一些多彩的伦敦的活力。

On December 11th the latest batch of data from the 2011 census of England and Wale s was published (Scotland and Northern Ireland collect figures separately). As was widely anticipated, this showed a big increase in the number of people who say they belong to an ethnic minority, or were born somewhere other than Britain. Those who define themselves as “white British” now make up just 81% of the population, down from 88% in 2001, when the last census was conducted. Britain is also less religious than it was: around a quarter of people now say they have no religion, up from about 15% a decade earlier.

11月11日，2011年英国和威尔士人口普查的最新数据公布(苏格兰，北爱尔兰的数据分开公布)。如广泛预测的一样，声称属于少数民族或者非英籍人的数量大幅增长。与上次2001年的人口普查相比，自认为“白种英国人”的数量从当时的88%下降到现在的 81%。同以前相比，有宗教信仰的英国人比以前少：早在10年前大约15%的人没有宗教信仰，而现在大约是1/3。

But beneath these broad trends the data reveal a more subtle pattern. In 2001 fully 45% of the minority population of England and Wales lived in London. Now, they are more spread out. As the maps below show, in London ethnic minorities have diffused from inner-city boroughs such as Newham and Tower Hamlets into farther-out places like Barking and Dagenham. Meanwhile, the rest of the country is coming to look more like London: less white, more diverse.

但是在这些大的趋势外，人口普查数据也揭露了一个更加微妙的模式。2001年，英国、威尔士中的少数人口中足足有45%住在伦敦。现在，他们都分散出去了。如下面地图所显示的，居住在伦敦的少数民族从像纽汉、陶尔哈姆莱茨区，这些内陆城市分散出来，搬到比如巴金区、达格南这些偏远的地方。同时，英国其他的地方渐渐开始更像伦敦：白人变少了，人种越来越多元化。

In 2001 around 80% of black Africans in the country lived in London. Now, just 58% do. There have been similar, if smaller, reductions for every other main ethnic group, even those not thought to have dispersed much, such as Bangladeshis. Overall, the ethnic-minority population outside London has increased by 90%, against a more modest rise of 63% in the capital.

2001年，英国大约80%的非洲黑人住在伦敦，而现在仅有58%。在其它主要的种族中，也出现了类似的减少，也许更少，即使有些被认为没有分散的很多种族，比如孟加拉国的人。总之，伦敦外的少数民族人口增长了90%，而伦敦的只稍微增加了63%。

In Kent, an affluent county south of London, the size of the ethnic-minority population has grown by 115% since 2001, albeit from a low base. In Hertfordshire, a rural and suburban county north of London, it has doubled. Many of the incomers are moving into Milton Keynes-esque places such as Ashford, in Kent, and Welwyn Garden City, in Hertfordshire. These towns have boxy houses, rational road layouts, plentiful but not especially distinguished greenery, and “herringbone” brick paving. Local politics revolves around blocking development on greenbelt land.

伦敦南部一个富裕的小镇肯尼(Kent)，尽管一开始起步低，但2001年来少数民族的人口增长了115%。 而伦敦北部一个乡下郊区小镇赫特福德郡(Hertfordshire)，少数人口数量翻了一番。很多人都搬到了一些比如肯尼的阿什福德，赫特福德郡的韦林花园城。这些城镇有方正型的房子，随意的道路布局，许多但不特别分部的绿化植物和人字铺砖。当地的政策围绕着阻碍绿地发展的项目。

It is not hard to see why ethnic minorities are moving to these towns. There is little crime. Schools are pretty good. Housing is far cheaper than in London, while speedy transport links make it easy to return. The main newcomers are black Africans and Indians from London, as well as Poles, who have settled all over the country since 2004, when the citizens of new members of the European Union were allowed to work in Britain. Similar trends are visible elsewhere. In Solihull, a well-heeled suburban town on the southern fringe of Birmingham, there has been an influx of Indians and Pakistanis since 2001; in less-wealthy Salford, near Manchester, black Africans have moved in.

不难理解为什么这些少数民族搬到这些小镇。这里犯罪少，学校特别棒。房价比伦敦低得多，但快捷的交通方式使从伦敦到这些小镇很方便。主要的新移民是来自伦敦的非洲黑人，印第安人，还有定居在全国各地的波兰人(2004年，英国允许欧盟新的成员国居民在这工作)。类似的人口迁徙潮在哪里都可以看到。坐落在伯明翰南部边缘的一个富裕的郊区小镇索利哈尔( Solihull)，自2001年来就有印第安人和巴基斯坦人涌入。

The flight to the suburbs is changing inner London too. Lambeth, a south London borough, has long been known as the first home of the capital’s black-Caribbean population: the passengers of the Empire Windrush mostly settled there in 1948. But since 2001 black Caribbeans have moved out while Africans have moved in. Shop displays advertise cheap money transfers and phone calls to Ghana and Nigeria. The influx of Africans partly helps to explain why, despite a huge fall in the number of people describing themselves as “Christian” nationwide, Lambeth, together with a few other London boroughs, has managed to increase its tally of the faithful.

飞往郊区的航班也改变了伦敦内部格局。伦敦南部自治区朗伯斯区(Lambeth)长期以来一直被认为是伦敦加勒比人的第一所在地，1948年帝国疾风号的乘客大部分在这定居。但自从2001年加勒比黑人迁徙出去，而非洲人在这落根。商店里陈列着便宜的钱币兑换广告，可以打到加纳和尼日利亚的公共电话。尽管在全国自称“信仰基督教”的人大幅度下降，但非洲人的涌入部分上解释了为什么，朗伯斯区和伦敦其它的自治州努力提高自身的忠实程度。

Taken with the rapid overall increase in immigrants in the past decade or so, this dispersal may be one reason why immigration has become so controversial. In many of the suburban places migrants are moving to, white British folk are seeing foreign faces in large numbers for the first time. Existing residents often resent the newcomers, who compete for school places, doctors’ appointments and public housing. Politicians are rushing to call for cuts to immigration. On December 12th Theresa May, the Conservative home secretary, denounced “uncontrolled, mass immigration”, which “displaces British workers, forces people onto benefits and suppresses wages for the low-paid”.

过去的10年内总移民量飞速上升，可能是导致移民变得如此有争议的原因之一。在许多郊区地方移民者涌入，白种英国人第一次看到这么多的外国人。现有居民通常反感新来者，他们会抢夺学校名额，医生的预约，公共住房。政客们都纷纷呼吁减少移民。12月12日，保守党内阁大臣特雷莎·梅( Theresa May)谴责“不受控制的、大量的移民”，这取代了英国人的工作，迫使他们依赖救济金生活，并压抑了低收入者的薪水。

But other evidence suggests that most migrants and children of migrants are integrating effectively. The number of people who say they are of mixed ethnicity has almost doubled, from 661,000 in 2001 to 1.2m. According to Sunder Katwala, the director of British Future, a think-tank, mixed couples are now more common in Britain than almost anywhere else, including the United States. And despite the increasing diversity, 91% of people filling out their census form claimed some sort of British national identity, calling themselves English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or indeed British, sometimes with ethnic additions.

但是其它证据表明大部分移民人及其子女有效的聚集在一起。自称是混合种族的人数几乎翻了一番，从2001年的661,000增长到现在的120万。智囊团英国未来的秘书长德·卡特瓦拉(Sunder Katwala)认为，英国的跨种族结婚的夫妻比世界上任何地方都多，包括美国。尽管种族多样性不断上升，但91%的人在填写人口普查表时声称多少有些英国国籍，把自己叫做英国人，威尔士人，苏格兰人，北爱尔兰人，或者真正地英国人，有时加上民族。

According to the Oxford Migration Observatory, a think-tank, opposition to immigration is weaker in London, where different groups have lived cheek-by-jowl for centuries, than in the rest of the country, even among white-British Londoners. Boris Johnson, its mayor, lauds the benefits of open borders. Contrary to Ms May’s suggestion, growing diversity need not mean lack of cohesion, or strife. Indeed, if the rest of Britain follows London’s path, it may well eventually reduce them.

据智囊团牛津移民观察会称，与其它城市相比，伦敦人不喜欢移民者的情绪较弱，即使是在白种的英国伦敦居民中。因为几个世纪以来不同种族的人拥挤地生活在一起。伦敦市长约翰逊·鲍里斯(Boris Johnson)赞美了开放边界的好处。与市长建议相反的是，多样化增长的需要不意味着凝聚力，冲突的缺失。真正地，如果英国的其它城市效仿伦敦的模式，英国也许最终会减少凝聚力和冲突。

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