4 \, L% B6 _7 d9 Y 4 c/ g2 K# V t @" X0 ?: a9 e, p 5 C y2 V1 j. w, k' a- t% GStenio da Luz dos Reis, 17, lives in Cape Verde but longs to join his mother in the Netherlands. She moved there in 2001 to find work. ! H, V0 `' k7 e" ?- O
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In a World on the Move, a Tiny Land Strains to Cope * v5 g7 J+ i. Q1 g6 D+ V
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MINDELO, Cape Verde — Virtually every aspect of global migration can be seen in this tiny West African nation, where the number of people who have left approaches the number who remain and almost everyone has a close relative in Europe or America. # ?" R# p, M Q/ | 8 x& B4 `. R" p ' V) O( k* r( N8 a9 d( R西非外海小国维德角 : z7 i1 U, H8 ~ 6 M. }9 ?1 E) w8 S- P" S9 H+ NMigrant money buoys the economy. Migrant votes sway politics. Migrant departures split parents from children, and the most famous song by the most famous Cape Verdean venerates the national emotion, “Sodade,” or longing. Lofty talk of opportunity abroad mixes at cafe tables here with accounts of false documents and sham marriages., a; D" K! a' ?
; N: h! `$ w# wThe intensity of the national experience makes this barren archipelago the Galapagos of migration, a microcosm of the forces straining American politics and remaking societies across the globe. 7 o* E. C: I' e+ Y( E5 x , ~6 E5 U# a, p" LAn estimated 200 million people live outside the country of their birth, and they help support a swath of the developing world as big if not bigger. Migrants sent home about $300 billion last year — nearly three times the world’s foreign aid budgets combined. Those sums are building houses, educating children and seeding small businesses, and they have made migration central to discussions about how to help the global poor. A leading academic text calls this the “Age of Migration.” 4 y- `( E7 v4 R9 X# c, V& u/ R V- u* v' N
But it is also the age of migration alarm, as European ships patrol African coasts to intercept human smugglers and new fences are planned along the Rio Grande. Countries that want migrant muscle and brains also want more border control. Many of them see illegal migrants as a security threat, especially in a terrorist age, and worry that large-scale migration, even when legal, can undercut wages, require costly services and subject national identities to bonfires of religious and cultural conflict.' V/ U2 I4 l. R1 p
0 `7 C% k. G% a2 s2 F( P* ^- I) m8 C/ h$ m' q0 q8 T, w4 k LEFT BEHIND Steven Ramos, 11, with one of his nieces in Mindelo, Cape Verde. His mother works in Portugal, his father in the Netherlands. ) a Z6 [: n% y% q) v" {' M* K6 s/ C, i4 Y4 m) J! t; e; S
& U$ ^# n2 |! @" W/ F' b. Y 9 j) f! g9 C1 nA FAR-FLUNG FAMILY Maria Cruz, left, who took part in a recent religious festival, has four children who left Cape Verde to work in the United States, Portugal and the Netherlands.) I! ?. M7 P% T7 x! g5 w* _4 d9 L! o
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[ 本帖最后由 日月光 于 2007-6-25 18:40 编辑 ]
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