The trip to the U.S. Southern border is hard, let alone for kids traveling alone

The trip to the U.S. Southern border is hard, let alone for kids traveling alone

Transcript¹

The last decade has seen a historic migration² of unaccompanied children crossing the U.S. border with Mexico. What does the future hold for America's newest child migrants?

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This past year has seen the largest wave of migrant children coming to the U.S. in modern history. In the last 12 months, nearly 145,000 kids have made it to the U.S. Southern border, many traveling alone. Most are fleeing danger in Central America, and they come to live here with relatives and await their asylum³ hearings. NPR's John Burnett reports.

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE⁴: A white van pulls up in an apartment complex in Austin. Nerly Garcia peers into the tinted⁵ windows to get a glimpse of her five daughters, who've been away from her for 20 months. Finally, the door slides open. Her youngest, 3-year-old Mia, climbs out and leaps into her mommy's arms.

NERLY GARCIA: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: The other four sisters, lugging⁶ colorful suitcases, climb the stairs to their new life. They were discharged from government custody⁷ and reunited with the help of an immigrant justice project called VECINA.

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: This is the end of a two-year odyssey⁸. It began when their mother spirited them away from their abusive father in La Paz, Honduras. They made their way to the Texas-Mexico border together, but when Nerly was turned away from a U.S. immigration court, she made an agonizing⁹ decision. She sent her five daughters alone across the border to surrender to federal agents. Eventually, she was permitted to cross the border, and she came here to Austin.

Three weeks after the reunion, I went back to check in on the Garcia family.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING, CHILD GIGGLING)

BURNETT: Mia had a cuddly¹⁰ new puppy and the girls' bedrooms were filled with toiletries, stuffed animals and heart pillows - gifts from a charity. The plan is they'll go to school, Nerly will work cleaning houses and they'll all pursue their asylum cases, which will likely take years.

GARCIA: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: She says the ordeal¹¹ has been especially hard for the girls because they were alone. At the tender ages of 1 year old to 10 years old, they waded¹² across a river into a strange land without their mother. They spent time in Border Patrol custody, then in a migrant shelter and finally in a foster home in San Antonio.

GARCIA: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: "Thank God we're finally together again," says Nerly.

We don't know how the Garcia girls will fare in Austin. They just got here. But we can look at the progress of other unaccompanied migrant children in similar circumstances. For this, I head to Houston, a city that receives lots of asylum-seekers.

Sarah Howell is a clinical social worker who sees mostly Central American children enrolled¹³ in public schools. She says they typically go through an initial honeymoon¹⁴ period.

SARAH HOWELL: Where it feels like the streets are paved with gold and they're in this new country and everything's just perfect, perfect, perfect. They're reunited with mom. They say, oh, everything's great. And then six weeks in, it all falls apart.

BURNETT: The trauma¹⁵ of their chaotic¹⁶ journey then emerges. It can lead to anxiety and depression. And there are other emotions - homesickness and disappointment. They may not get along with relatives. They have no money in a pricey city and they live in a place where the streets are not paved with gold, says Howell.

HOWELL: Kids start to let down their guard, but unfortunately, families have settled in communities that are high-poverty, that often unfortunately also have high rates of community violence.

BURNETT: In their new reality, oftentimes the happiest place for migrant children is school.

(SOUNDBITE OF SCHOOL BELL)

BURNETT: At the dismissal bill, a United Nations of students - 88 different languages in all - pours into the hallways. This is the Alief Independent School District on Houston's immigrant-rich southeast side.

DULCE SEGOVIA: This is their safe place. This is their place where they know that they can get food or that they can get clothing or that they can ask a question. And because what happens outside these doors is, for me, in my opinion - it's so difficult for these kids.

BURNETT: Dulce Segovia is director of English instruction at LINC, the Language Institute for Newcomers, at Alief. Segovia understands her students. She was a girl when her family fled El Salvador in the '90s and came to Houston with nothing to start a new life. She knows the immigrant experience can be traumatic, but she says these kids are tough.

SEGOVIA: Immigrants are very resilient. I think that they've learned to live kind of day by day just because the situation of a refugee or an immigrant is just so difficult, even in their home country.

BURNETT: There is a conservative critique of asylum-seekers in the U.S. that they're a burden on society. The argument goes like this, and it's based on U.S. Census¹⁷ data. Central Americans are more likely to hold a job than the U.S. native population, but they're also more likely to trail the native-born in socioeconomic status.

Steven Camarota is research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates for fewer immigrants.

STEVEN CAMAROTA: So a lot of these kids that are coming as unaccompanied minors¹⁸ are joining low-income families, and those families are going to live in poverty. And in many cases, then the family has to turn to the American taxpayer¹⁹ for various forms of assistance, whether it be food assistance, health care.

BURNETT: Unauthorized migrants, like the Garcia family, are not eligible²⁰ for any federal benefits. If they become legal, they would be entitled to food stamps and Medicaid, like any other needy²¹ family. But Jodi Berger Cardoso points out that when migrant children finish high school, there are societal gains. She's an associate professor in the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston, where she works with migrant families.

JODI BERGER CARDOSO: These are people who go and enter into the labor²² force - right? - who often enter into low-wage jobs, jobs that we need filled. They're the construction workers. They're the service workers. They're the restaurant workers.

BURNETT: It's important to measure not just the experiences of newly arrived migrants, but the progress of their children as well, says Luis Zayas. He's dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin, and he's researched recent immigrant flows.

LUIS ZAYAS: That happens with every immigrant group in that first generation. They don't bring the skills, they don't have the - necessarily the language skills to make it. But they do succeed, and they succeed in propelling their children forward. We have seen it in literally²³ every immigrant group in America.

BURNETT: We're back in the Garcia's crowded apartment in Austin. The oldest, Kimberly, 12 years old and painfully shy, sits on her mom's bed and reflects on her new life here.

KIMBERLY GARCIA: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: Si.

KIMBERLY: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: "We didn't have much opportunity there in Honduras," she says. "But here, we do." Kimberly says she wants to learn English, join the basketball team and study to become a marine²⁴ biologist. If she wins asylum, she's got a shot at it.

John Burnett, NPR News, Austin.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 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。

3 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。

4 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。

5 tinted   

adj. 带色彩的 动词tint的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• a pair of glasses with tinted lenses 一副有色镜片眼镜
• a rose-tinted vision of the world 对世界的理想化看法

6 lugging   

超载运转能力

参考例句：

• I would smile when I saw him lugging his golf bags into the office. 看到他把高尔夫球袋拖进办公室，我就笑一笑。 来自辞典例句
• As a general guide, S＄1 should be adequate for baggage-lugging service. 一般的准则是，如有人帮你搬运行李，给一新元就够了。 来自互联网

7 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

8 odyssey   

n.长途冒险旅行；一连串的冒险

参考例句：

• The march to Travnik was the final stretch of a 16-hour odyssey.去特拉夫尼克的这段路是长达16小时艰险旅行的最后一程。
• His odyssey of passion, friendship,love,and revenge was now finished.他的热情、友谊、爱情和复仇的漫长历程，到此结束了。

9 agonizing   

adj.痛苦难忍的；使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦；折磨(agonize的ing形式)

参考例句：

• I spent days agonizing over whether to take the job or not. 我用了好些天苦苦思考是否接受这个工作。
• his father's agonizing death 他父亲极度痛苦的死

10 cuddly   

adj.抱着很舒服的，可爱的

参考例句：

• The beautiful crib from Mom and Dad is so cuddly.爸爸妈妈送的漂亮婴儿床真舒服。
• You can't call a hedgehog cuddly.你不能说刺猬逗人喜爱。

11 ordeal   

n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验

参考例句：

• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
• Being lost in the wilderness for a week was an ordeal for me.在荒野里迷路一星期对我来说真是一场磨难。

12 waded   

（从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She tucked up her skirt and waded into the river. 她撩起裙子蹚水走进河里。
• He waded into the water to push the boat out. 他蹚进水里把船推出来。

13 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 honeymoon   

n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月

参考例句：

• While on honeymoon in Bali,she learned to scuba dive.她在巴厘岛度蜜月时学会了带水肺潜水。
• The happy pair are leaving for their honeymoon.这幸福的一对就要去度蜜月了。

15 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

16 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

17 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

18 minors   

n.未成年人( minor的名词复数 )；副修科目；小公司；[逻辑学]小前提v.[主美国英语]副修，选修，兼修( minor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The law forbids shops to sell alcohol to minors. 法律禁止商店向未成年者出售含酒精的饮料。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had three minors this semester. 这学期他有三门副修科目。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

20 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

21 needy   

adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的

参考例句：

• Although he was poor,he was quite generous to his needy friends.他虽穷，但对贫苦的朋友很慷慨。
• They awarded scholarships to needy students.他们给贫苦学生颁发奖学金。

22 labor   

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。

23 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

24 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。