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对从小被美国家庭领养的他们来说,“被遣返就像是被判死刑” | 双语

2017-07-03 纽约时报中文网 NYT教育频道

Jean Chung for The New York Times

亚当·克拉普塞尔在他首尔的家附近。至少有6名被领养者因为养父母无法为其取得美国公民身份而遭驱逐回到韩国,他是其中之一。

SEOUL, South Korea — Phillip Clay was adopted at 8 into a U.S. family in Philadelphia.

韩国首尔——菲利普·克莱(Phillip Clay)8岁时被费城的一个美国家庭领养。

Twenty-nine years later, in 2012, after numerous arrests and a struggle with drug addiction, he was deported back to his birth country, South Korea. He could not speak the local language, did not know a single person and did not receive appropriate care for mental health problems, which included bipolar disorder and alcohol and substance abuse.

在29年后的2012年,经历了数次被捕以及同药物上瘾的斗争后,他被遣返回出生国韩国。他不会说当地语言,谁也不认识,躁郁症、酗酒和滥用药物等精神问题也没有得到适当治疗。

On May 21, Clay ended his life, jumping from the 14th floor of an apartment building north of Seoul. He was 42.

5月21日,克莱从首尔北部一个公寓楼的14层跳下,结束了自己的生命。享年42岁。

To advocates of the rights of international adoptees, the suicide was a wrenching reminder of a problem the United States urgently needed to address: adoptees from abroad who never obtained U.S. citizenship. The Adoptee Rights Campaign, an advocacy group, estimates that 35,000 adult adoptees in the United States may lack citizenship,which was not granted automatically in the adoption process before 2000.

对国际被领养者权利的支持者来说,他的自杀让人沉痛地想起那些从未获得美国公民身分的海外被领养者,这是美国迫切需要解决的一个问题。据倡导团体被领养者权利运动(Adoptee Rights Campaign)估计,美国有3.5万成年被领养者没有公民身分——在2000年之前,公民身份不是在领养过程中自动授予的。

Clay is believed to be just one of dozens of people, legally adopted as children into U.S. families, who either have been deported to the birth countries they left decades ago or face deportation after being convicted of crimes as adults. Some did not even know they were not U.S. citizens until they were ordered to leave.

像克莱这样的人据信有几十个,他们被美国家庭合法收养,成年后因遭判刑,已被遣返或即将被遣返回数十年前离开的出生国。有些人在被下令离开时,甚至不知道自己不是美国公民。

Adoptees from other countries, like Vietnam, Thailand and Brazil, have faced deportation. But the sheer number of children adopted from South Korea, once a leading source of children put up for adoption abroad, has made it the most visible example of the issue, and of the enormous challenges returnees face as they try to once again navigate a foreign culture, this time with little or no assistance.

来自越南、泰国和巴西等其他国家的被领养者也面临遣返问题。但是,韩国曾是海外领养儿童的主要来源,有大量儿童被美国家庭领养,所以在这个问题上,韩国被领养者成为最明显的例子,它也反映出被遣返者再次在一个陌生文化中生活所面临的挑战。这一次,他们几乎没有任何协助。

Many have nowhere to go, often living on the streets. In South Korea, one deportee served a prison term for robbing a bank with a toy gun. Another, who like Clay had mental health problems, has been indicted twice on assault charges.

很多人无家可归,经常露宿街头。在韩国,有一名被遣返者因为用玩具枪抢银行而服刑。还有一个和克莱一样,患有精神疾病,因人身攻击两次被起诉。

“Deportation is like the death sentence to them,” said Hellen Ko, a chief counselor at the government-run Korea Adoption Services, who monitored Clay as a caseworker. “They had a hard time adjusting to life in America. It gets even harder for them when they return here.”

“对他们来说,被遣返就像是被判死刑,”政府运营的韩国领养服务中心(Korea Adoption Services)首席顾问海伦·高(Hellen Ko)说。她是负责监管克莱的社工。“他们曾经艰难地适应了在美国的生活。返回这里生活更加艰难。”

Jean Chung for The New York Times

蒙特·海恩斯的工作是做酒保。“当时,我身上只有20美元,不知道自己身在何处,”蒙特·海恩斯(Monte Haines)回想起2009年被遣返后抵达首尔海关机场时的情形。三十多年前,他被一个美国家庭收养。

“All I had was $20 on me; I didn’t know where I was,” Monte Haines said, recalling the day he landed at Seoul’s gateway airport after being deported in 2009, more than 30 years after a U.S. family adopted him. “There was nobody there to talk to.”

“当时,我身上只有20美元,不知道自己身在何处,”蒙特·海恩斯(Monte Haines)回想2009年被遣返后抵达首尔海关机场时的情形。三十多年前,他被一个美国家庭收养。“没有可以交谈的人。”

Americans have adopted more than 350,000 children from abroad since the 1940s, according to the Adoptee Rights Campaign, and the United States left it to the parents to secure citizenship for the children.

据被领养者权利运动称,从1940年代起,美国从海外收养了逾35万名儿童。按照美国当时的规定,父母需要为这些孩子申请公民身份。

But some did not understand that their children did not automatically become citizens when they completed the adoption. Other adoptees have said that their parents were put off by the cost and paperwork of the citizenship process, or that they essentially abandoned them.

但是有些父母并不知道,完成领养手续后,那些孩子并不能自动变成美国公民。还有些被领养者表示,他们的养父母因为申请公民身份所需的费用和文件而放弃了,也有些父母是实质上抛弃了他们。

In 2000, Congress passed the Child Citizenship Act, which granted automatic citizenship to children adopted by U.S. citizens. But the law did not retroactively benefit adoptees who were already legal adults.

2000年,国会通过了《儿童公民法》(Child Citizenship Act),将公民身份自动授予美国公民所领养的儿童。但这一法律没有追溯效力,已经在法律上成为成年人的被领养者无法从中受益。

“As a child, I didn’t ask to be sent to the United States. I didn’t ask to learn the English language. I didn’t ask to be a culturalized American,” said Adam Crapser, who was deported to South Korea last year, at age 41, after 38 years in the United States. “And now I was forced back to Korea, and I lost my American family.”

“我小时候,并没有要求被送到美国。也没有要求学习英语。也没有要求成为文明的美国人,”亚当·克雷珀塞(Adam Crapser)说。去年,41岁的他被遣返回韩国,之前他在美国生活了38年。“现在,我被迫返回韩国,失去了自己在美国的家庭。”

Crapser, who left behind a wife and three daughters in the United States, was abandoned by his first adoptive parents and abused by his second. He accumulated a criminal record over the years, including a conviction on burglary charges.

克雷珀塞在美国有妻子和三个女儿。他曾被第一对养父母抛弃,遭到第二个领养家庭虐待。这些年来,他有很多犯罪记录,包括因入室行窃而被判刑。

But in recent years, he had begun turning his life around and applied for a green card in 2012. That triggered a background check, leading to the deportation proceedings that flipped his life upside down.

但是近些年,他开始扭转自己的人生。2012年,他申请绿卡。结果引发了背景核查,导致了让他的生活彻底倾覆的遣返程序。

“They waited until I had a family, and they waited until I had children,” he said. “They waited until I had something to lose.”

“他们一直等到我有了家庭,有了孩子,”他说。“一直等到我有了可以失去的东西。”

Crapser, who had never traveled abroad while living in the United States, said he “could not read a sign” when he landed at Incheon Airport outside Seoul. Korean faces and the language swirling around him came as “a complete shock,” he said.

克雷珀塞在美国生活时从未出过国。他说,到达首尔郊外的仁川机场时,他“连标识牌都看不懂”。他说,周围的韩国面孔和语言让他“完全不知所措”。

His deportation put a strain on his relationship with his wife in the United States, and he has not seen his daughters in 15 months. Living out of suitcases in a tiny studio in Seoul, Crapser said that he struggled to keep himself busy to fight depression and that his job opportunities were extremely limited.

被遣返后,他与在美国的妻子的关系变得十分紧张,他已经15个月没有见到女儿们了。他住在首尔的一个小开间里,四处奔波。他说,他努力让自己忙起来,以对抗抑郁,他的工作机会非常有限。

“The language is the biggest barrier because of how late I came back here to Korea,” he said.

“语言是最大的障碍,因为我这么大年纪才返回这里,”他说。

作者:CHOE SANG-HUN

翻译:王相宜



相关阅读:

被收养近40年后,他为何被赶出美国

Gosia Wozniacka/Associated Press

2015年3月,亚当·克拉普塞尔和他的女儿克里斯托尔(左)、克里斯蒂娜,以及妻子阮英(音)在位于华盛顿州温哥华市的家中。

近40年前,身在韩国的亚当·克拉普塞尔(Adam Crapser)被收养,然而现在他却在华盛顿州一家移民拘留中心饱受煎熬,等待被驱逐出境,因为他的美国父母不曾给他办理入籍手续。

41岁的克拉普塞尔在俄勒冈州已经建立了自己的生活,他有妻子和孩子,但却很快要被迫离开这个他从三岁就开始居住的国家,前往韩国。他计划在距离韩国首都首尔三小时车程的一个小城镇里和亲生母亲重聚。他的家人会暂时留在美国,他们计划将来在韩国团聚。

“事到如今,我已经做好准备,就这么回去,试着在那边生活,”克拉普塞尔周一晚上在塔科马西北拘留所(Tacoma Northwest Detention Center)接受电话采访时说。一周前,一位法官驳回他最后一次留在美国的申请。“出乎意料的是,这中间也带来一些好事。”

克拉普塞尔表示,他能对眼前即将发生的令人痛苦的生活变化保持乐观的态度,部分原因在于他的案子同时吸引了美国和韩国媒体的关注。一部有关他的困境和其他韩国被收养者生活的韩国纪录片,促使他的生母主动现身。

“我在韩国的确有家人,”克拉普塞尔说。“他们得到通知,知道我要回去。这是好事,也是坏事。有点苦乐参半。”

然而,这种能看到希望的事态发展远非一种普遍的经历。他的律师洛里·沃尔斯(Lori Walls)周一表示,克拉普塞尔的案子证明了,永久居民多么容易地被卷入驱逐出境诉讼,尽管他们是作为被收养者以合法身份进入这个国家,只不过养父养母没有给他们入美国国籍。

据倡导组织被收养人权利运动(Adoptee Rights Campaign)统计,在美国,有大约3.5万人属于被美国夫妇收养但没有获得公民身份的情况。

沃尔斯表示,克拉普塞尔一直是依据有关被收养子女的IR-4文件合法地生活在美国。2001年生效的《儿童公民法》(Child Citizenship Act)自动赋予了持IR-4身份的人以公民身份,但这部法律没有追溯效力——已经成为合法成年人的被收养者无法从中受益。“亚当当时已经超过18岁,所以不符合截止年龄,”沃尔斯说。

克拉普塞尔表示,去年冬天他先是通过FaceTime和韩国的家人进行了几次视频通话。他和生母通过一名翻译进行交流,因为他不会说韩语。(他说被遣返回去的时候,他计划带上一本旅游词汇书,“这样我就能看懂标牌之类的东西”。)

克拉普塞尔的积极态度,掩盖了他在美国的生活如同卡夫卡小说一般的本质。即将遭遇遣返,只是他经历的最新的难熬之事。而不管以什么标准衡量,他在美国期间的生活都称得上极为艰难。

克拉普塞尔曾2015年4月发表在《纽约时报杂志》(The New York Times Magazine)的一篇报道中讲过,他和姐姐最早是被同一个美国家庭收养,期间两个孩子都遭到了养父母的身体虐待。

六年后,这对夫妇再度将两个孩子送养。姐弟俩被分开,克拉普塞尔的新养父母托马斯和多利·克拉普塞尔(Thomas and Dolly Crapser)也虐待他。这对夫妇还有过几次收养经历,那些被他们收养孩子也曾遭到虐待。1992年,这对夫妇被判犯有虐待和人身侵犯罪,托马斯·克拉普塞尔还被判有性虐待行为。

16岁的时候,亚当·克拉普塞尔被赶出了克拉普塞尔家,为了拿回自己的私人物品,他后来又非法进入了这家的房子。他承认犯下入室盗窃罪,在监狱里服了25个月刑。

之后又出现了更多与法律冲突的行为。从监狱出来后,他被判定非法持有枪支。据《纽约时报杂志》报道,之后他又犯下一些轻罪,后来因打架被判企图伤害罪。

“因为被抚养过程非常混乱,他无法证明自己的身份,”他的律师洛里·沃尔斯说。

克拉普塞尔表示,直到2012年和已经获得美国公民身份的姐姐团聚,他才意识到做一名永久居民和一名公民之间是有差别的。

遣返程序就始于那一年,在他申请居住权证明被当局发现他的犯罪记录之后不久。沃尔斯表示,塔科马的一个移民法庭在10月24日做出了最后的裁决。克拉普塞尔周一表示,他可能会在30天内被遣返。

克拉普塞尔说自己做一份稳定工作的时间从来没有超过90天,因为他无法证明自己的合法身份,他总是把这归因于混乱的童年。“在人生的大部分时间里,我基本上都必须偷偷摸摸地工作,”他说。

他希望自己的命运最终能在韩国好转。

“我觉得从某种程度上讲,好的一面就是我是一名韩国公民,所以当我回去的时候,就已经是那个国家的公民了,”他说。“我猜那才是我的归属。”

作者:LIAM STACK and CHRISTINE HAUSER

翻译:常青



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