VOA慢速英语2021--美国移民增加，巴西城镇空置

Brazilian Town Empties as Migration¹ to US Increases

Ana Paula Souza, her husband and their young son are among the hundreds of families that have left the small Brazilian town of Alpercata in recent months.

Alpercata is home to about 7,500 people. It is in Brazil's southeastern state of Minas Gerais. People have left the area to come to the United States for many years. But the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly weakened² the economy.

Now, people are leaving almost daily.

The town's local bakery does not have enough workers. Government employees have quit their jobs. Local soccer teams are out of players.

"Alpercata is emptying out," said Souza, who is 23 years old. "Everyone is leaving."

Souza now lives in Orlando, Florida. She has a job at a bakery. Her husband is working in the building industry.

Many people are leaving Alpercata and other nearby towns because of the effects of the pandemic. COVID-19 has killed more than 600,000 people in Brazil.

In Latin³ America overall⁴, there has been an increase in immigration to the U.S. The area has been hit hard by the virus. Record numbers of Brazilians, Haitians and Venezuelans are appearing at the southern U.S. border.

Brazilians ranked sixth among the nationalities detained⁵ at the border between October 2020 and September 2021, data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show. A record 56,735 Brazilians were stopped.

Earlier waves of migration were mostly poor young men who quickly returned home. But this wave is bringing professional workers that are harder for Brazil to replace, officials told the Reuters news agency⁶.

Nurses, engineers and even city officials are leaving. Many of them have no plans to return. In Alpercata, the mayor⁷'s office is the town's top employer⁸. Almost 5 percent of the 162 employees at the office fled to the United States this year.

Many are also taking their families. A U.S. asylum⁹ policy permits some nationalities, including Brazilians, to remain in the United States while they argue their claims. It is a legal process that can take years. A total of 99 percent of Brazilian families who were stopped at the U.S. southern border in fiscal¹⁰ year 2021 entered the country to argue cases in immigration court, CBP data show.

Alpercata's schools have lost 10 percent of their 926 students so far this year, said the town's education secretary.

Many of these families join Brazilian communities in Florida or

Massachusetts. They are able find some of the 10.4 million jobs currently¹¹ unfilled in the United States.

Jorge Estefesson is Alpercata's top sports official. "We're scared that in the future, we're going to be an elderly city without young people," he said.

Officials in the United States also are concerned.

Most Brazilian migrants reach the United States through Mexico, where they enter as tourists without visas. Some go to Mexican border cities before turning themselves in to U.S. officials to claim asylum. The U.S. has been pressuring Mexico to stop permitting Brazilians to enter without visas to help stop their trip to the border.

Last week, Mexico said that by mid-December, it would require all Brazilians to have visas in order to enter Mexico. Such action has been effective at preventing immigrants¹² from other countries from entering Mexico. But Brazil's weakened economy likely means people will continue to travel north, officials told Reuters.

A strong U.S. dollar is also driving immigration. The dollar is up more than 50 percent against the Brazilian real since late 2018, when President Jair Bolsonaro was elected.

Since Bolsonaro's election¹³, the number of Brazilians detained at the southern U.S. border rose more than 3,500 percent. Brazilians living overseas are now sending $300 million to $400 million back home each month, central bank data found.

The money is welcome. But Alpercata still faces a shortage¹⁴ of healthcare workers and engineers, said the town's mayor.

Egnalda Oliveira works¹⁵ at a city school. She is also a single mother. She said the deaths of her husband and parents, along with a rise in inflation¹⁶, have left her struggling to make enough money.

"If I could leave tomorrow," she said, "I would."

Words in This Story

replace — v. to be used instead of

nurse — n. a person who is trained to care for sick or injured people and who usually works in a hospital or doctor's office

mayor — n. an official who is elected to be the head of the government of a city or town

elderly — adj. old or rather old

tourist — n. person who travels to a place for pleasure

1 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。

2 weakened   

adj.虚弱的v.（使）削弱， （使）变弱( weaken的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The team has been weakened by injury. 这个队因伤实力减弱。
• In his weakened condition, he is very susceptible to cold. 他身体很弱，因此很容易患感冒。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 Latin   

adj.拉丁的，拉丁语的，拉丁人的；n.拉丁语

参考例句：

• She learned Latin without a master.她无师自通学会了拉丁语。
• Please use only Latin characters.请仅使用拉丁文字符。

4 overall   

n.工作服，工装裤；全面的，全体的

参考例句：

• The shop assistant was wearing a white overall.那店员穿着白色的工作服。
• How much will it cost overall?一共多少钱？

5 detained   

留住( detain的过去式和过去分词 )； 耽搁； 拘留； 扣留

参考例句：

• One man has been detained for questioning. 一个男人被拘留审问。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group. 他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

6 agency   

n.经办；代理；代理处

参考例句：

• This disease is spread through the agency of insects.这种疾病是通过昆虫媒介传播的。
• He spoke in the person of Xinhua News Agency.他代表新华社讲话。

7 mayor   

n.市长

参考例句：

• The new mayor said he would clean the city up.新市长说，他要整顿本市。
• The mayor hurried into his office,brushing off the reporters.市长赶快走进办公室，拒不接见记者。

8 employer   

n.雇用方，雇主

参考例句：

• My employer deducted ten pounds from my wages this week.我的雇主从我本周的工钱中扣除了十英镑。
• His monthly salary is paid into the bank by his employer.他的月薪由雇主替他存入银行。

9 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。

10 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

11 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

12 immigrants   

n.移民( immigrant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Illegal immigrants were given the opportunity to regularize their position. 非法移民得到了使其身份合法化的机会。
• Immigrants from all over the world populate this city. 这个城市里生活着来自世界各地的移民。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 election   

n.选举，选择权；当选

参考例句：

• There is no doubt but that he will win the election.毫无疑问，他将在竞选中获胜。
• The government will probably fall at the coming election.在即将到来的大选中，该政府很可能要垮台。

14 shortage   

n.缺少，缺乏，不足

参考例句：

• The city is suffering a desperate shortage of water.这个城市严重缺水。
• The heart of the problem is a shortage of funds.问题的关键是缺乏经费。

15 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。

16 inflation   

n.胀大，夸张，通货膨胀

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• The inflation of the airbed took several minutes.给空气床垫充气花了几分钟时间。