美国国家公共电台 NPR Hungary Has A Xenophobia Problem

Hungary Has A Xenophobia Problem

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

"Take A Number" is our series that uses a numerical figure to explore problems around the world. And today's number is 10, which is the percentage of Hungarians who, according to a new EU survey, are totally comfortable having an immigrant as a friend. Ten is clearly not a very large number. Joanna Kakissis explains what's driving xenophobia there and how some are trying to defy it.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELLS RINGING)

JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE¹: Every day at noon, church bells ring as Ibrar Hussein Mirzai finishes his Hungarian language class in Fot, a town near Budapest.

IBRAR HUSSEIN MIRZAI: Living in a safe place, having a job, having your family with you - this is what a normal life is to me (laughter).

KAKISSIS: Mirzai is an 18-year-old Afghan refugee. He loves math, libraries and qawwali, a type of Sufi music. Last year, he was among 1,100 people granted asylum² in Hungary.

MIRZAI: I never thought that I would stay here and be in Hungary. But I didn't have any other way to find a peaceful place for me to live my life or whether to go back.

KAKISSIS: His friends warned him that Hungarians hate foreigners, but his teachers and housemates are kind. The supermarket ladies remind him of his grandmother. He even played video games with a border policeman.

MIRZAI: Yeah. I'm just a normal person like them. I don't have any problem with them. They don't have to have any problem with me.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELLS RINGING)

KAKISSIS: But newly re-elected prime minister Viktor Orban calls refugees Muslim invaders³. He's referencing history, one that's coded into the bell ringing at Fot's Roman Catholic cathedral.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: This is where the priest lives.

KAKISSIS: The parish priest Sandor Sebok and his dog Apollo (ph) live next door.

SANDOR SEBOK: (Speaking Hungarian).

KAKISSIS: Father Sebok explains that the bells toll⁴ for the Hungarian military hero Janos Hunyadi. In 1456, Hunyadi's army stopped the Ottoman invasion of Hungary, just as Orban - the priest says - stopped an invasion by Muslim migrants.

SEBOK: (Through interpreter) These healthy young men who come here as migrants - I see them as soldiers coming here to conquer Europe. What Islam couldn't do with the sword back in 1456, it is trying to do now through migration⁵.

KAKISSIS: I catch the train back to Budapest to run this epic⁶ story past the sociologist⁷ who has been studying xenophobia for 26 years.

Hello, sir. How are you?

ENDRE SIK: Just fine.

KAKISSIS: I'm Joanna...

Endre Sik is 69 with a fuzzy beard and skeptical⁸ eyes, like a cynical⁹ wizard. Hungarians have suffered a history of invasions, Sik says, and Father Sandor's fear is existential.

SIK: It is the fear that our world would collapse¹⁰. We will lose everything we have - the way we think, the way we construct our reality. It is doomed¹¹ to success.

KAKISSIS: Since 1992, Sik has polled Hungarians on which nationalities they would admit into the country.

SIK: I would find people who would reject all of them.

KAKISSIS: Sik once made up an ethnic¹² group, the Pirez people. Most Hungarians also rejected the fictional¹³ Pirez, or Pirezians as he calls them. In his home office, he points to a T-shirt with Hungarian writing.

And what does the T-shirt say?

SIK: It says the Pirezians do not work, and they steal our jobs (laughter).

KAKISSIS: Were you surprised at all by the results?

SIK: No. The Hungarian form of xenophobia - let's put it that way - is, let's say, the classic form. They are different. We don't know them. Therefore, we hate them. That's the beast in us.

KAKISSIS: Hello.

MARCELL KENESEI: Hello.

KAKISSIS: Educator Marcell Kenesei sees the problem.

KENESEI: Hungary is predominantly white and predominantly very Christian¹⁴. The problem in Hungary is the few opportunities to meet with people coming from different backgrounds.

KAKISSIS: Kenesei knows that firsthand. He's Jewish.

KENESEI: For some people, it's an oxymoron. You cannot be - it's either-or. Either you are Jewish or Hungarian.

KAKISSIS: He supervises nonprofit programs that bring together children from Christian, Jewish, Roma and Muslim backgrounds to craft songs, videos and murals together.

KENESEI: And the notion is that when they finish with the project, they will be proud of what they have done. And they have done it with someone else. And this creates a certain kind of interest towards others.

KAKISSIS: That may not last. Energized¹⁵ by its re-election, Viktor Orban's government is cracking down on nonprofits that support migration, saying Hungary's identity is at risk. For NPR News, I'm Joanna Kakissis in Budapest.

(SOUNDBITE OF A HAWK AND A HACKSAW'S "THE MAGIC SPRING")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 asylum   

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。

3 invaders   

入侵者，侵略者，侵入物( invader的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They prepared to repel the invaders. 他们准备赶走侵略军。
• The family has traced its ancestry to the Norman invaders. 这个家族将自己的世系追溯到诺曼征服者。

4 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

5 migration   

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。

6 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

7 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。

8 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

9 cynical   

adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的

参考例句：

• The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大，他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
• He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。

10 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

11 doomed   

命定的

参考例句：

• The court doomed the accused to a long term of imprisonment. 法庭判处被告长期监禁。
• A country ruled by an iron hand is doomed to suffer. 被铁腕人物统治的国家定会遭受不幸的。

12 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

13 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

14 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

15 energized   

v.给予…精力，能量( energize的过去式和过去分词 )；使通电

参考例句：

• We are energized by love if we put our energy into loving. 如果我们付出能量去表现爱意，爱就会使我们充满活力。 来自辞典例句
• I am completely energized and feeling terrific. 我充满了活力，感觉非常好。 来自辞典例句