IN HISTORY books, we’re reminded that the United States is a “nation of immigrants,” and that immigrants played a key role in building the U.S. Yet right-wing politicians tell us today that immigrants are responsible for crime, economic decline and other problems in the U.S.
在历史书籍中，我们被提醒说美国是一个“移民国家”，移民对于建设美国发挥了关键作用。然而，右派政治家今天告诉我们，移民对犯罪，经济衰退和其他美国的问题负有责任。
This love-hate view of immigration and immigrants stems from the role that immigration plays in the capitalist economic system under which we live.
这种对移民行为和移民个人的爱恨观念源于移民在我们生活的资本主义经济体系中所扮演的角色。
The capitalist system is international, with products manufactured and sold worldwide. Capitalists–the tiny minority that owns and controls the international banks and multinational corporations–rely on a global pool of labor. To enable the capitalists to fill their demands for labor, this labor pool has to be somewhat mobile.
资本主义系统是国际性的，产品在世界范围内制造和销售。 资本家 – 拥有和控制国际银行和跨国公司的少数派 – 依赖全球劳动力池。为了使资本家满足他们对劳动力的需求，这个劳动力池必须有一定的流动性。
The central mechanism of control over the movement of labor is the nation-state. National border controls ensure that capitalism, through its state, maintains control over labor, rather than allowing people to move at will.
控制劳动力流动的中心机制是民族国家。 国家边境控制确保资本主义通过其国家维持对劳工的控制，而不是让人们自由流动。
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the U.S., Canada and Mexico aimed to promote easy transport of goods and services across the three countries’ borders. But NAFTA explicitly bars free immigration.
美国，加拿大和墨西哥之间的北美自由贸易协定（NAFTA）旨在促进三国边境的货物和服务的便捷运输。 但NAFTA明确禁止自由移民。
When economic growth produces a demand for workers that can’t be satisfied by the existing workforce, a “labor shortage” results. During the Second World War, women filled the labor shortage in military industries created because millions of men entered the armed forces.
当经济增长造成现有工人数无法满足对工人的需求时，就会造成“劳动力短缺”。 在第二次世界大战期间，女性填补了因为数百万男性进入武装力量而造成的军事工业的劳动力短缺。
It is likewise with immigration. When the domestic workforce can’t fill demands for labor that capitalists need, governments often promote immigration. Immigration is not an accident.
移民行为也是如此。 当国内劳动力无法满足资本家对劳动力的需求时，政府往往会促进移民。 移民行为并不是偶然。
Nor do rich countries accept the world’s poor out of generosity. Labor migration is essential to the capitalist system. The purpose of immigration policy, then, is to regulate the flow of labor–to control the borders so as to control the workers themselves.
富裕国家也不是因为慷慨才接受世界上的穷人的。 劳工移民对资本主义系统来说至关重要。 那么移民政策的目的就是要规范劳动力流动 – 控制边界以便控制工人自己。
Immigration laws serve capitalism in two ways. First, they ensure cheap foreign labor when the domestic economy needs it. Second, they allow for greater control of the whole workforce.
移民法以两种方式为资本主义服务。 首先，当国内经济需要时，他们确保廉价的外国劳工。 其次，它们可以更好地控制整个劳动力队伍。
Most of the advanced economies of the capitalist world were built on migrant labor. They have actively sought foreign-born workers in some historical periods. The same countries have also clamped down on immigration at other times.
资本主义世界的大多数发达经济体都是建立在移民劳工之上的。 他们在一些历史时期积极寻找外国出生的工人。 在其他时候，同样的国家也限制了移民。
The U.S. government’s previous bracero program shows clearly how immigration policy is shaped to the needs of capital. The bracero program was initially implemented as a wartime emergency program in 1942 to fill a labor shortage in agriculture by importing farm workers from Mexico. The program became the largest foreign-worker program in the history of the U.S., contracting over 5 million braceros to growers and ranchers over the next 22 years.
美国政府之前的支柱计划清楚地表明移民政策是如何被资本需求塑造的。 该项目最初是作为战时应急计划在1942年实施的，通过从墨西哥进口农业工人填补农业劳动力短缺。 该计划成为美国历史上规模最大的外籍员工计划，在未来22年内向种植者和牧场主提供了超过500万劳动力支撑。
Yet the government maintained control over the movements of these workers, and at any time could (and did) restrict the numbers of Mexicans crossing the border and clamp down on Mexicans in the U.S. The passage of workers from Mexico was crucial to the economy, but the workers themselves, at any given moment, could be treated like unwanted criminals, refused entry or deported.
然而政府仍然控制着这些工人的流动，并且随时都可以（并且确实）限制墨西哥人越过边境和限制墨西哥人在美国的流动。墨西哥工人的流动对经济至关重要，但在任何特定时刻，工人本身都可以被视为不受欢迎的罪犯，被拒绝入境或驱逐出境。
Reducing labor costs, a key aim of capitalists at all times, can be achieved by paying lower wages. To this end, companies can either move production to sites with cheaper labor supplies, or they can bring cheap labor supplies to production sites.
降低劳动力成本是资本家在所有时候的关键目标，这可以通过支付较低的工资来实现。为此，公司可以将生产转移到劳动力更便宜的地点，也可以将廉价的劳动力供应带到生产基地。
A perfect illustration of moving production to the labor supply is the maquila zone along the U.S.-Mexico border, created after the bracero program ended. Here, advanced country multinationals gain immigrant workers’ skills without having to pay to develop them. The social costs of child benefits and education have been provided by another state (in this case, Mexico).
将生产转移到劳动力供应的一个完美案例是美国和墨西哥边境沿线的配料区，这个配料区是在支柱项目结束后创建的。 在这里，发达国家的跨国公司获得移民工人的技能，而无需支付发展他们所需的费用。 另一个政府（本案例中是墨西哥）提供了儿童福利和教育所需的社会成本。
But if the workers come across the border to work as undocumented labor in the U.S., employers gain the same advantages.
但是，如果工人跨越边界在美国从事无证工作，雇主可以获得同样的好处。
What are the specific conditions that make immigrant labor especially attractive to business? Immigrant workers are less likely to be unionized, and an immigrant workforce is often more controllable. Employers use the threat of deportation and criminalization to exploit immigrants ruthlessly and quell immigrants’ efforts to fight for their rights.
使移民工人对企业特别有吸引力的具体条件是什么？ 移民工人不太可能参加工会组织，而移民工人往往更易于控制。 雇主利用驱逐和定罪的威胁来无情地利用移民并镇压移民为争取权利而作出的努力。
Legal immigrants waiting for confirmation of citizenship are subject to this pressure, as well as undocumented workers. The presence of a criminalized section of the workforce is crucial for the employers to maintain their control.
等待确认公民身份的合法移民将受到这种压力，还有无证工人。 对劳动力进行犯罪化的部分的存在对雇主保持控制是至关重要的。
New immigrants often don’t speak English and are desperate for work. Employers exploit this vulnerability to the fullest–paying below-average wages, violating safety standards and workers’ rights.
新移民通常不会说英语，并且渴望工作。 雇主利用这个缺陷得到最充分的——支付低于——平均水平的工资，违反安全标准和侵犯工人的权利。
Meatpacking companies in the Midwest, for example, send personnel managers on tours of the U.S. to recruit Asian and Latino immigrants from California and New York, according to sociologists Louise Lamphere, Alex Stepick, and Guillermo Grenier. One company representative for Dupaco, a meatpacking firm in Nebraska, was typically up-front about the aims of recruitment: “We need to get us a minority group in here.”
据社会学家Louise Lamphere，Alex Stepick和Guillermo Grenier称，中西部的肉类加工公司派经理人参观美国，招聘来自加利福尼亚州和纽约的亚裔和拉丁裔移民。 Nebraska州的一家肉类加工企业Dupaco的一名公司代表对公司招聘的目标提出了很高的要求：“我们需要让我们在这里获得一个少数群体。”
The Dupaco executive’s statement illustrates another important benefit employers gain from hiring immigrants: keeping the workforce divided. Employers use every possible difference between workers–sex, race, sexual orientation, skill and citizenship status–to sow division in the workforce. Employers know that a divided workforce is less likely to unite to demand union representation and higher wages and benefits.
Dupaco高管的声明表明雇主从雇用移民中获得的另一个重要利益：保持工人之间的分裂。 雇主利用工人之间的所有可能的差异 – 性别，种族，性取向，技能和公民身份 – 来在工人队伍中播种分裂。雇主知道，分裂的劳工们不太可能联合起来要求工会代表和更高的工资和利益。（备注：独裁者常用的分而治之策略，挑拨工人之间互斗，然后老板们就可以稳坐钓鱼台了。）
It’s clear that when it comes to making profits, U.S. business sees no borders.
很明显，攫取利润时，美国的商业是没有边界的。
That’s why it’s even clearer that the U.S. labor movement needs to continue organizing among immigrants. Improving wages and conditions for immigrants shouldn’t be seen as a way indirectly to boost “American” wages and conditions, separate from immigrants’ conditions. On the contrary, jobs performed by immigrants are crucial to the U.S. economy. Improving their wages and conditions will benefit all workers, no matter what side of the Rio Grande (or Rio Bravo) they were born.
这就是为什么美国劳工运动需要继续在移民中组织起来。 不应该将提高工人的工资和条件视为间接促进提高“美国人”的工资和条件，而与移民的条件分开。 相反，移民工作对美国经济至关重要。 改善他们的工资和条件将使所有工人受益，无论他们出生在Rio Grande （或Rio Bravo）的哪一边。（备注：当移民工人的劳工权利受到捍卫时，老板们为了剥削掠夺相同数量的剩余价值，就不得不多雇佣一些工人，从而减少失业大军的数量。否则，老板们会选择剥削掠夺移民，继续中制造失业大军，并且借助煽动鼓吹对移民的仇恨破坏民主。）