印度时报：无数印度妇女发现她们的“美国梦”岌岌可危

Thousands of Indian women find their American dreams in jeopardy

无数印度妇女发现她们的美国梦岌岌可危

LIVERMORE (USA): For seven years, Deepika Jalakam sat at home. Bored, unfulfilled and dependent on her husband for every dime, she struggled with the notion that her professional life was doomed in the land of opportunity .

利弗莫尔(美国):七年来，迪皮卡·贾拉卡姆坐在家里，无聊，没有成就感，每一分钱都要伸手找丈夫要，她一直在挣扎，认为只有在充满机遇的土地上才能找到自己的职业生涯。

So when the employment card arrived in the mail in 2015, Jalakam did what she often does when good fortune comes her way: She placed it before the gods in the Hindu shrine mounted in her kitchen cabinet, blessed it with a dab of red "kum kum" powder and recited a prayer of gratitude.

所以当2015年他们收到就业卡信时，贾拉卡姆像以往好运发生时做的那样，在厨房橱柜里的印度教圣神的神龛前摆放就业卡,轻轻撒上一些红色粉末祈福并念诵了一段感恩祷告。

Within weeks, Jalakam, who has a degree in biotechnology, landed a job as an analyst at an insurance company. The next year, she and her husband, Vinay Kumar, a software engineer, bought a house. In 2017, the finances of the Indian immigrant couple were secure enough that they decided to have a second child.

几周后，拥有生物技术学位的贾拉卡姆找到了一份保险公司分析师的工作。第二年，她和她的丈夫，软件工程师维奈库马尔购置一处房产。到了2017年，这对印度移民夫妇的财务状况已经稳定下来，他们决定生育第二个孩子。

All that planning, though, is in jeopardy. Jalakam and thousands of other spouses of skilled workers have been told that their special work permits - authorisation that can mean the difference between struggling and thriving in their adopted homeland - are likely to be revoked.

然而，这些生活规划现在都岌岌可危了。贾拉卡姆和其他数千名技术工人的配偶被告知，他们的特殊工作许可—对他们来说关乎存亡的批文—很可能被取消。

The Trump administration announced last fall that, as part of a crackdown on H-1B visas issued for skilled workers to enter the United States, it plans to rescind an Obama-era programme that allowed spouses to work. The change, expected in June, would mean that thousands of mainly Indian women who followed their husbands to the US will have to give up their jobs - even though many are highly educated workers.

特朗普政服去年秋天宣布，作为压缩发放给美国技术移民的H-1B签证的政策的一部分，政服计划废除“奥巴马时代”允许配偶工作的政令。这一变革预计将在6月份发生，这意味着无数跟随丈夫前往美国的印度女性将不得不放弃自己的工作—即使其中多数都受过高等教育。

"We were happily working and feeling settled down with the life we wanted. Suddenly, this announcement came and there is instability," said Jalakam, 32, who now finds herself worrying about everything from day-to-day spending to vacation plans.

32岁的贾拉卡姆说：“我们快乐地工作着，生活如我们所愿安定下来。但突然间，这个声明给我们带来了不确定性。”她发现自己已经在为从日常开支到度假计划的一切担心。

Across the country, thousands of Indian families are caught in a similar dilemma because of the outsized role that they play in the H-1B visa programme. The annual visa scramble began this week. The petitions represent tens of thousands of foreigners vying for the opportunity to work in the US for three years or long er. Many are Indian software engineers and computer programmers recruited by American technology companies that say they cannot find enough talent in this country.

在全美范围内，成千上万的印度家庭陷入了类似的困境，因为他们是H-1B签证项目的主要构成群体。这个星期一年一度的签证争夺战又开始了。成千上万的外国申请人互相争夺在美国工作3年或更久的机会。其中很多是被美国科技公司雇佣的印度软件工程师和计算机程序员，这些公司称他们无法在美国找到足够多的人才。

But the H-1B programme has spawned controversy. During his campaign, President Trump invited Americans displaced by H-1B workers to his rallies. Since taking office, he has ordered the programme's overhaul, and his administration has taken steps to tighten scrutiny of applications.

但H-1B项目引发了争议。在竞选期间，特朗普总统就曾邀请被H-1B申请人抢走工作的美国人参加集会。自上任以来，特朗普总统已下令对该项目进行全面改革，已采取措施对申请的从严审查。

Still, demand for the visas continues unabated. In 2018, for the sixth consecutive year, the federal government was so flooded with petitions it stopped accepting them within a week. On Friday, officials announced they had reached their annual cap within five days and would resort again to a computer lottery to select the targeted 85,000 recipients.

到目前为止，签证申请量仍未减少。2018年，联邦政服连续第六年收到大量申请，不得不在一周内停止收件。上周五官员们宣布，他们已在五天内收满年度配额的申请，并将再次采取电脑随机抽选的方式选出85,000人。

Nearly 3,65,000 H-1B petitions were approved in the 2017 fiscal year. Three-quarters of them went to Indian nationals. Their success has been a mixed blessing. Tens of thousands of Indians on the temporary visas were later sponsored by their employers to remain permanently in the US, but their families are in limbo, stuck in a ballooning backlog of green cards that are approved but cannot yet be issued. The delays have meant that until recently thousands of women, many highly educated, remained at home while their husbands worked.

近365,000份H-1B签证申请在2017财年获批。其中四分之三的人是印度人。他们的成功毁誉参半。数以万计持有临时签证的印度人得到了雇主的担保永久留在美国，但他们的家人却悬而未决，他们受困于积案不断增加的绿卡申请，这些绿卡已经获批，但还不能签发。这种延迟意味着，无数受过高等教育的妇女在丈夫工作的时候只能继续留在家里。

The Obama administration attempted a partial fix to the problem in 2015, authorising temporary work permits for spouses of H-1B visa holders who were in the pipeline to get a green card. Under the programme, known as H-4EAD, an estimated 1,00,000 spouses, overwhelmingly women, have obtained work permits. "I felt like I was free from a cage to fly in any direction I want," Jalakam said of her work authorisation that year.

奥巴马政服曾试图在2015年对这一问题进行局部修正，政服向H-1B签证持有者的配偶签发临时工作许可，这些人正在排队等候领取绿卡。这项名为“H-4EAD”的计划使得大约10万配偶(绝大多数是女性)获得了工作许可。贾拉卡姆在谈到她那一年的工作授权时说：“我觉得自己从一个囚笼自由地飞向任何想去的方向。”

Last fall's announcement that the temporary work programme would soon be scrapped has energised Indian women. Many who had sunk money into property and other investments with earnings from their jobs took to Twitter, using #standwithh4ead and #saveh4ead to raise awareness of their plight. "We're determined to save our jobs," said Jansi Kumar of Seattle, a founder of a Facebook page started in December, "Save H4EAD," which has attracted nearly 5,000 followers.

去年秋天政服宣布临时工作计划将于不久后被废止，使得印度女性群情激奋。其中许多人都把工作所得用于购房和其他投资，他们在推特上发表#standwithh4ead和#saveh4ead话题以提高人们对他们困境的关注度。“我们决心保住我们的工作，”来自西雅图的詹西库马尔说，他于去年12月在脸书上创建了一个“拯救H4EAD”专题页面，吸引了近5000名粉丝。

On the other hand, a group of information technology workers who lost their jobs to imported workers has filed suit to overturn the spousal work authorisation programme. The department of homeland security, the federal agency which oversees the programme, said it was completing an economic analysis and was likely to render its decision in June.

另一方面，一群因技术移民而失业的信息技术工作者提出诉讼，要求废除配偶工作批文。负责监管该计划的联邦机构国土安全部表示，它已完成经济学分析并可能在6月份做出裁决。

In January, the Information Technology Industry Council, which represents titans like Apple, IBM and Microsoft, argued in a letter to the administration that revoking spousal work permits could prompt foreign talent to leave the US and put American companies at a competitive disadvantage.

今年1月，代表苹果、IBM和微软等巨头的信息技术产业委员会在给政服的一封信中表示，撤销配偶工作许可可能会促使外国人才离开美国，让美国公司处于竞争劣势。

In June 2015, the latest year for which official data is available, about 300,000 Indians, including spouses and children, were waiting for their permanent residency cards. Indians in the green-card process since 2008 are only now receiving them. "No one should be stuck waiting more than 10 years for a green card. It hurts employers and employees and their families," said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law at Cornell Law School. "Indians are being held hostage by our broken immigration system."

2015年6月，官方数据显示最近一年约有30万印度人(包括配偶和孩子)在排队等候绿卡。2008年递交绿卡申请的印度人现在刚刚才收到绿卡。康奈尔法学院移民法教授史蒂芬耶鲁-勒尔说，“没有人会为了绿卡而等待超过10年。这伤害了雇主、雇员和他们的家人，印度人被我们支离破碎的移民系统绑架了。”

Back in California, Jalakam dreads returning to the days when she filled her time tutoring students in math and taking online technology courses. "I would see a woman all dressed up as an executive and wonder, 'Will I ever be like that?'" recalled Jalakam, whose family's green card was approved in 2010 but is still unissued.

让我们把视线拉回到加州，贾拉卡姆担心又要回到辅导学生数学和学习技术课程网络课程的日子。贾拉卡姆回忆说，“那时我看到一个女人打扮得像办公室行政人员，我还在想‘我能像她那样吗?’”。贾拉卡姆一家的绿卡在2010年获得批准，但至今尚未签发。

印度时报读者评论：

Harjot Singh

Trump is doing what is best for his country, same as Modi is doing for India. History will be the judge.

特朗普只做对美国好的事情，莫迪也是。历史自会评判。

 

Bornagain100

21741

bornagain100-11 hours ago

Liberal journalism has indeed gone crazy. The headline "Thousand of Indian women find their American Dream in jeopardy" makes no logical sense. Shouldn''t Indian woman just have Indian dreams? Or some American women have Indian dreams too. Or It is everyone''s birthright to go and settle in America.

自由主义的报纸真的是疯了。这个头条一点逻辑性都没有。印度妇女不是应该做印度梦吗？难道美国妇女会做印度梦？难道每个人天生就该定居在美国？

 

Ryan Dsilva

122

Ryan-8 hours ago

very good decision to stop Indian wives who grab jobs of American counterparts who are really in need of it to sustain,rather then been just a gold digger.

阻止印度人的老婆抢走美国人的工作，这个决定太好了，这些美国人才是真的需要工作安身立命的，他们跟那些淘金者不一样。

 

Slim Shady

731

slim shady-10 hours ago

so cheap that indians still wanna lick boots to get US visa . i support trump

印度人还是抱紧美国签证不放，太贱了，我支持特朗普

 

Maverick Tiranga

840

Maverick-New Delhi-11 hours ago

Indians are harmless people law abiding & imbibing American values slowly. US should prefer them over other South Asians

印度人遵纪守法，渐渐融入美国社会，他们对社会没有害处。比起其他南亚人，美国应该更喜欢印度人。

 

Rocky Balboa

192

rocky balboa-9 hours ago

All worthless gulti aunties needs to go back. Very good decision trump.

所有这些毫无价值的阿姨们必须返回印度，特朗普这个决定棒棒的。

 

Disque Chat

164

Disque Chat-9 hours ago

I met so many kaalay Indians in US they are dying to settle in US. They cry when their h1 visa is over it’s pathetic they hate their own country.

我在美国见到过很多印度人，他们太想定居在美国了。当他们的H1签证到期后他们放声大哭，太可悲了，他们居然憎恨他们自己的祖国。

 

Jaimin Patel

7491

Jaimin Patel-9 hours ago

All these folks who are marrying to H1B holders and going USA on spouse visa know from day 1 that they can not work in USA on spouse H4 visa. They should have think about their career before taking decision to marry a guy on H1 or applying for spouse visa. Why don''t they ask for H1 if they are exceptional and work in USA instead of whining?!!

这些人都是通过跟持有H1B签证的人结婚，获得配偶签证来美国的。他们来的第一天就知道不能用配偶H4签证来工作。他们在决定嫁给H1持有人或申请配偶签证前，就该想清楚他们的职业生涯了。如果她们很优秀，为什么自己不申请H1签证呢？发牢骚有什么用？

 

Suman Chatterjee

731

Suman Chatterjee-Kolkata, India-3 hours ago

Being an Indian I have no sympathy for these people.Just because of some extra money and greed they left their motherland and tried to find a step mother when even in india hard work and dedication can create wonders

身为印度人，我一点儿也不同情这些人。为了多赚一些钱，为了贪欲，他们离开自己的祖国找后妈，就算是在印度，努力工作和奉献也可以创造奇迹。

 

Rocky Balboa

192

rocky balboa-5 hours ago

I would say Trump should revoke visa''s for people coming from Andhra pradesh in India. It is because of them today rest of the indians have to face this situation. In fact, i say Trump should ban the people from that state completely, straight rejection even if you were born there.. and Mr Modi should denounce that state from India. Useless people and useless State!!

我想说，特朗普应该撤销发给印度安得拉邦的人的签证。正是因为他们，今天的印度人不得不面对这种情况。事实上，我认为特朗普应该完全禁止安得拉邦的人进入美国，直接拒签这些人，就算只是出生在那儿。而且莫迪也应该废除印度的安得拉邦。无用的人和无用的安得拉邦!!

 

Indiannationalist47

503

Anonymous-6 hours ago

The whole news is copied from New York Times article, published few days ago. This is plagirism personified!

这个新闻是抄袭纽约时报几天前刊发的文章，这是抄袭。

 

Vivek Sood

7845

Vivek Sood-10 hours ago

India is home to Vedas . Puahpak viman brahmstra if of ancient tech can be researched we don''t have to go anywhere

印度是吠陀经的家乡，如果能研究古代科技，我们都不需要去任何其他地方。

 

Surinder S

20607

Surinder S-NA-10 hours ago

Indians brought it upon themselves by flooding American high tech market.

印度人涌入美国高科技市场，他们自己导致了这个局面。

 

Krishnan Krishnan-Bangalore-3 hours ago

Come back home, it is good here. Both of you can work with lot of dignity!

回家来吧，这儿也很好。你们夫妻都可以有尊严的工作

 

Hasu

316

Hasu-7 hours ago

They have no regard for american workers who lost their jobs because of all these H1b guys only think of their selfish interests. If the same situation happens in India there would be riots.

他们完全不考虑被H1B签证持有人抢走工作的美国人，他们只考虑自己的私利。如果印度发生这种事儿，肯定要暴动了。

 

Aryan Thakur

2869

Aryan Thakur-3 hours ago

Stop playing fooking victim, no one forced them to move to the USA, the American govt has every right to make laws which benifits their citizens, get over it or return to India.

不要再装受害者了，没人强迫他们搬到美国去，美国政服完全有权利制定让公民受益的法律，要么克服困难，要么回印度去。

 

Narasarao

30296

narasarao-Hyd-8 hours ago

They have no choice except to take it as it comes.

他们没得选，只能接受。

 

Moneyapan S

1596

moneyapan S-B-10 hours ago

Our Telegu friends will find a way out of that ban..Keep up the hope.

我们的特拉古朋友会找到解决之道的，别放弃希望。

 

Jay Smith

1560

Jay Smith-10 hours ago

Totally unfair , but then in India we do something same and call it Reservation.

太不公平了，不过在印度我们也是这样做的，我们叫它预留制。

 

Asach Gurung

118

Asach Gurung-29 mins ago

I simply do not understand why Indians are crazy to go and live in America.

我就是不明白为什么印度人发了疯似的要去美国定居？

 

Hataora Singh

3715

Hataora-Naida Gurgaw-4 hours ago

Where will Green card beggars go now? Will Hot girls opt for groom from UP/ Bihar instead of a US groom?

这些绿卡乞丐们要去哪儿？漂亮的姑娘们会选择北方邦、比哈尔邦的新郎还是美国新郎？

 

Sudarshan Nindrajog

19541

Sudarshan Nindrajog-6 hours ago

every country makes efforts to reduce unemployment of their citizens and usa is doing the same

美国国家都想方设法降低公民失业率，美国也是这样做。

 

Christopher John

2437

christopher John-1 hour ago

Come to India work in manufacturing sector

来印度制造行业工作吧

 

Mudi Ji

6300

Mudi-Gujriot-3 hours ago

The people celebrating this decision here are people who got their visas rejected and were jealous of the Indians who made it outside

为这个决定开心雀跃的就是被拒签的人，他们妒忌哪些拿到签证的印度人。

 

The Last Word

6075

The Last-United Kingdom-3 hours ago

Ur dreaming if u think that the US would keep this program afloat. If u dream about doing a job, then go do it in India. Americans would try to protect their interests and i don't blame them.

如果你认为美国会一直执行这个计划，那你就是在做白日梦。如果你是梦想着要找份工作，那就在印度找吧。美国人会保护他们自己的利益，我可不会因此责怪他们。

 

Venkat Apr

3149

Venkat Apr-Location-5 hours ago

We don''t encourage talent in the country in the name of reservations, why cry n hue when they make living with their own talent in America. Frogs in the well

我们的预留制不鼓励人才，他们凭本事在美国生活有什么好哭的。井底之蛙。

 

Ankush N

16802

Ankush N-Delhi-11 hours ago

Why Jobs not increasing in India? Is govt doing anything abt it? How Vikas possible without employment ..in air/speeches?

为什么印度的工作岗位没有增加呢？政服有采取什么措施吗？没有就业，维卡斯怎么有可能实现？光靠说有用？