多米尼加共和国的移民

　　No place like home

　　何处为家乡

　　The travails of the children of Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic

　　在多米尼加，海地移民的孩子承受着艰难困苦

　　NIGHTMARE is about to end for some 24,000 people in the Dominican Republic (DR).For months a court ruling has in effect rendered them stateless, in the process straining the country's tense relations withHaiti, its poorer neighbour on the CaribbeanislandofHispaniola.But for many others, the ordeal is continuing.

　　多米尼加共和国将近24000海地移民的噩梦即将消散。几个月以来，一项法庭裁决致使他们进入了无国籍的窘境，因而使得多米尼加共和国和它在加勒比伊斯帕尼奥拉岛上家徒四壁的邻居海地关系愈发紧张起来，除此以外，其实很多时候移民苦难的余烬都生生不息。

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　　Until a decade ago the children of Haitian migrants who were born in the DR were recognised as Dominican nationals, even if their parents had immigrated illegally.The rules began to change in 2004, and in 2010 a new constitution made a legally resident parent a requirement for citizenship at birth.Then, last September, a ruling of theConstitutional Courtdenied citizenship to the offspring of illegal immigrants who had arrived before that change.

　　但10年前的一项规定带来一线转机：即使父母双方都为非法移民，但在多米尼加出生的孩子仍为多米尼亚公民。但2004年，政策开始发生变化，2010年新颁布的宪法规定，只有合法公民的孩子出生后才具有公民资格，去年9月，宪法法庭又规定，若海地非法移民在2010年法律调整前抵达多米尼加，则他们的孩子不具有公民身份。

　　The government maintains that these revisions justly removed an anomaly and conform with practice elsewhere.Yet the children concerned—many well into middle age—were at a stroke reclassified as foreigners, and have since been refused new identity documents.Instead they were told to request new papers from their purported country of origin, even though the vast majority have never been toHaiti, speak only Spanish and cannot prove they are eligible for Haitian citizenship.

　　多米尼加政府表示，这些修订以合法的方式抹去了本国法律的特殊性，与其他国家一致。但该法律牵涉的孩子已步入中年，突然失去公民资格无异于晴天霹雳，从今往后也无权持有新的多米尼加身份证，而必须申请本土国身份证，但他们大多从未去过海地，只能说一口西班牙语，无力证明他们具有成为海地公民的资格。

　　Relations on Hispaniola have been tense ever sinceHaitioccupied the DR in 1821-44, but this time the world took notice.Pressure groups and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned the ruling.Caricom, a group ofCaribbeancountries, suspended the DR's membership application.Meanwhile Michel Martelly,Haiti's president, caused a stir by quoting a Dominican journalist who called the decision “civil genocide”.All that left Danilo Medina, who was inaugurated as the DR's president just a month before the ruling, in a fix.His nation can ill afford to be ostracised, yet capitulating would make him look weak.He would risk seeming too friendly toHaiti, which Dominican politicians have long used as a rhetorical punchbag.Joaquin Balaguer, a strongman who ruled the DR intermittently for 30 years, once warned of a “peaceful invasion” of Haitian immigrants.Leonel Fernández, who was Mr Medina's predecessor and is married to his vice-president, won a close election in 1996 after accusing his darker-skinned, Haitian-descended rival of wanting to reunite the two countries.

　　海地1821年侵占多米尼加，直到1844年多米尼加才独立，两国关系自此剑拔弩张，但这一次世界终于开始关注这里的紧张局势，利益集团和美洲人权委员会都谴责了海地对多米尼加的统治，加勒比国家集团——加勒比共同体搁置了多米尼加的加入申请，与此同时，海地总统米歇尔·马尔泰利因为引用一位多米尼加记者的话，称该决定是“种族灭绝”而引起混乱，这将多米尼加新上任一个月的总统达尼洛·麦迪纳置于尴尬处境，多米尼加固然不能承担孤立无援的代价，但举手投降未免也显得自己是把软骨头,对海地示好更是暗含成为多米尼加政客众矢之的风险，毕竟此举此前就一直受其含沙射影的攻击。强硬派所罗拉·巴拉格曾断断续续统治了多米尼加30年，他曾警告说海地移民会形成“和平侵略”势力。麦迪纳的继任者莱昂内尔·费尔南德斯嫁给了麦迪纳在任时的副总统，在对这位黑皮肤，海地裔的总统一番指手画脚称其企图再次联合两国后，他在1996年赢得大选。

　　In the end, Mr Medina and his legislative allies chose a cautious middle path.For the group most starkly disadvantaged—the 24,000 people with previously valid Dominican identity papers—help is on the way.On May 23rd the president signed a law reinstating their citizenship.Although Dominican bureaucracy can be arbitrary and arduous, they are now formally eligible to renew their birth certificates, driving licences and passports.People without such documents who can still prove to the authorities' satisfaction that they were born in the DR—a group that includes 21,000 children born from 2007-10—will also get a reprieve.After a two-year waiting period they will be eligible to apply for naturalised citizenship, which carries all the rights of the native-born except the ability to hold high office.

　　最终麦迪纳及立法机关还是谨慎的选择了一条折衷的道路，24000名海地移民现有身份证已经失效，深受其害，但对于他们的救助正落实到位，5月23日，麦迪纳签署了一项法案，重新授予他们公民身份，虽然多米尼加政府有时专横霸道，难以对付，但它如今确实正式授予海地移民新的出生证，驾驶执照和护照。其他一些人比如2007至2010年间出生的儿童，即使没有身份证，只要能向官方证明他们出生在多米尼加，也能延期2年申请公民身份，除无权担任高级要职外，享有所有国民权利。

　　However, the law offers no solution for the biggest group involved: those who were born in the DR to parents without legal residence, but cannot demonstrate it.They will in effect remain stateless and officially eligible for deportation, though they have nowhere else to go.A UN survey of 2013 found there were 244,000 people in the DR whose parents were undocumented foreigners, meaning around 200,000 may be in this predicament.

　　但该法律并未给最大受害群体指明一条出路，这些人的父母没有也无力证明合法身份，他们无家可归，流离失所，处于驱逐出境的当口。联合国2013年的调查显示，在多米尼加，244000人的父母都是无身份的外国人，这就意味着将近200000人或许还将深陷此等窘境。

　　Human-rights groups angrily point out that the new law thus leaves most of the people affected by the ruling in limbo.All the same, Mr Medina's meticulous segmentation of the problem will probably relieve much of the political pressure.People who already had identity papers tend to be richer and more influential than those who did not; many of the most outspoken victims of the court decision were educated professionals who could use the media and lobby effectively.The new system placates this high-profile group, while leaving those on the fringes of Dominican society to fend for themselves.

　　人权组织愤言新法律的出台无法改变大多数被统治阶层水深火热的境况。但麦迪纳这种管窥蠡测的做法将再一次减轻政治压力，比起那些没有身份证的群体，已经获得的人更为富裕，也更具影响力，很多对法庭决定坦言不满的受害者都是一些受过教育的专业人士，他们能有效运用媒体，游说打动人心，新的体系平息了这些高姿态群体的怒火，但那些处在多米尼加社会边缘的人民只能自力更生。