加拿大志願者向敘利亞難民敞開懷抱
TORONTO — One frigid day in February, Kerry McLorg drove to an airport hotel here to pick up a family of Syrian refugees. She was cautious by nature, with a job poring over insurance data, but she had never even spoken to the people who were about to Move into her basement.
多倫多――今年2月一個寒冷的日子裏，凱莉·麥克朗格(Kerry McLorg)開車去某機場酒店接一家敘利亞難民。從事保險數據研究的她生性謹慎，但此前，她並未和即將搬進她家地下室的這家人說過話。
“I don’t know if they even know we exist,” she said.
“我甚至不知道他們是否知道我們的存在，”她說。
At the hotel, Abdullah Mohammad’s room phone rang, and an interpreter told him to go downstairs. His children’s only belongings were in pink plastic bags, and the family’s documents lay in a white paper bag printed with a Canadian flag. His sponsors had come, he was told. He had no idea what that meant.
在酒店，阿卜杜拉·穆罕默德(Abdullah Mohammad)房間裏的電話鈴響了起來，一個翻譯告訴他可以下樓了。他的孩子們行李不多，都放在粉色塑料袋裏，全家人的文件則放在一個印着加拿大國旗的白色紙袋裏。他接到通知，說他的贊助者們來了。他不知道這是什麼意思。
Across Canada, ordinary citizens, distressed by news reports of drowning children and the shunning of desperate migrants, are intervening in one of the world’s most pressing problems. Their country allows them a rare power and responsibility: They can band together in small groups and personally resettle — essentially adopt — a refugee family. In Toronto alone, hockey moms, dog-walking friends, book club members, poker buddies and lawyers have formed circles to take in Syrian families. The Canadian government says sponsors officially number in the thousands, but the groups have many more extended members.
在加拿大各地，有許多普通民衆爲溺亡兒童和背井離鄉的絕望難民感到悲傷，紛紛參與到這項世界上最緊迫的問題中來。他們的國家賦予他們一項罕有的權力與責任：他們可以結成小羣體，以個人身份重新安置（實質上等於收養）一個難民家庭。僅在多倫多，因孩子打冰球而結識的媽媽們、遛狗認識的朋友、讀書俱樂部的成員、打撲克的牌友和律師們紛紛組成小羣體，接納敘利亞家庭。加拿大政府說，官方確認的贊助者已達數千人，但是這些小組還有更多外圍成員。
When McLorg walked into the hotel lobby to meet Mohammad and his wife, Eman, she had a letter to explain how sponsorship worked: For one year, McLorg and her group would provide financial and practical support, from subsidizing food and rent to supplying clothes to helping them learn English and find work. She and her partners had already raised more than 40,000 Canadian dollars (about $30,700), selected an apartment, talked to the local school and found a nearby mosque.
麥克朗格走進酒店大廳，去迎接默罕默德和他的妻子艾曼(Eman)，她帶着一封信，裏面對這項贊助活動做出瞭解釋：一年內，麥克朗格和她的小組會提供經濟的以及各種實質性的援助——從食物、房租補助到衣服，甚至幫助他們學英語、找工作。她和搭檔們已經籌集了4萬加元（約合人民幣20.6萬元），選好了一處公寓，同當地學校談好入學問題，還在附近找好了清真寺。
McLorg, the mother of two teenagers, made her way through the crowded lobby, a kind of purgatory for newly arrived Syrians. Another member of the group clutched a welcome sign she had written in Arabic but then realized she could not tell if the words faced up or down. When the Mohammads appeared, McLorg asked their permission to shake hands and took in the people standing before her, no longer just names on a form. Abdullah Mohammad looked older than his 35 years. His wife was unreadable, wearing a flowing niqab that obscured her face except for a narrow slot for her eyes. Their four children, all under 10, wore donated parkas with the tags still on.
麥克朗格是兩個十幾歲孩子的媽媽，她走過擁擠的大廳，這樣的地方對於新來的敘利亞人不啻爲一種折磨。小組的另一個成員手裏拿着一塊標識，上面用阿拉伯語寫着表示歡迎的字樣，但她發現自己其實也拿不準這塊牌子有沒有拿倒。穆罕默德一家出現了，麥克朗格徵求對方同意後與他們握了手；他們終於站在了她的面前，不再只是表格上的名字。阿卜杜拉·穆罕默德35歲，但看上去比實際年齡要老，他的妻子則說不清年齡，鬆垂的面紗遮住了她的面孔，只有一條窄縫露出眼睛。他們有四個孩子，都不到10歲，穿着捐助的衝鋒衣，標牌還沒有撕去。
For the Mohammads, who had been in Canada less than 48 hours, the signals were even harder to read. In Syria, Abdullah had worked in his family’s grocery stores and Eman had been a nurse, but after three years of barely hanging on in Jordan, they were not used to being wanted or welcomed. “You mean we’re leaving the hotel?” Abdullah asked. To himself, he was wondering, “What do these people want in return?”
對於來到加拿大還不到48小時的穆罕默德一家來說，眼前的種種信號更加捉摸不透。在敘利亞，阿卜杜拉在自家的雜貨鋪裏工作，艾曼曾是護士。但是在約旦逗留三年後，他們已經習慣了遭人厭惡遭人嫌這件事。“你是說我們要離開酒店了？”阿卜杜拉問。他想知道，“這些人要什麼回報呢？”
Much of the world is reacting to the refugee crisis — 21 million displaced from their countries, nearly 5 million of them Syrian — with hesitation or hostility. Greece shipped desperate migrants back to Turkey; Denmark confiscated their valuables; and even Germany, which has accepted more than half a million refugees, is struggling with growing resistance to them. Broader anxiety about immigration and borders helped motivate Britons to take the extraordinary step last week of voting to leave the European Union.
在這場難民危機中，有2100萬難民逃出自己的國家，其中近500萬是敘利亞人，世界上的大多數地方對於這場危機的迴應是猶豫，甚至是敵意。希臘把絕望的難民用船送回土耳其；丹麥沒收了他們的財產；就連接納了50多萬難民的德國，對他們的抗拒也在日益增加。對移民與邊境日漸增多的焦慮，使得英國人在上個星期採取極端措施，投票脫離歐盟。
In the United States, even before the Orlando massacre spawned new dread about “lone wolf” terrorism, a majority of American governors said they wanted to block Syrian refugees because some could be dangerous. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has called for temporary bans on all Muslims from entering the country and recently warned that Syrian refugees would cause “big problems in the future.” The Obama administration promised to take in 10,000 Syrians by Sept. 30 but has so far admitted about half that many.
在美國，就連在奧蘭多大屠殺製造出對“獨狼”恐怖主義日漸蔓延的新恐懼之前，有大半的美國州長表示，他們不希望接受敘利亞難民，因爲其中一些人可能是危險分子。穩獲共和黨總統提名的唐納德·特朗普(Donald Trump)呼籲，要臨時禁止所有的穆斯林進入這個國家，近來又警告說，敘利亞難民可能“在未來造成重大問題”。奧巴馬政府承諾到9月30日接受1萬名敘利亞難民，但到現在爲止僅接受了一半不到。
Just across the border, however, the Canadian government can barely keep up with the demand to welcome them. Many volunteers felt called to action by the photograph of Alan Kurdi, the Syrian toddler whose body washed up last fall on a Turkish beach. He had only a slight connection to Canada — his aunt lived near Vancouver — but his death caused recrimination so strong it helped elect an idealistic, refugee-friendly prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
然而，在邊境對面，加拿大政府卻忙於滿足人們對他們的歡迎。去年秋天，很多志願者看了屍體被衝到土耳其海灘上的敘利亞孩子阿蘭·庫爾蒂(Alan Kurdi)的照片後，覺得有義務採取行動。他和加拿大隻有一點點關係——他的阿姨生活在溫哥華附近——但他的死引發了強烈的反應，以至於加拿大人投票選舉了理想主義的、對難民友善的賈斯廷·特魯多(Justin Trudeau)擔任總理。
Impatient would-be sponsors — “an angry mob of do-gooders,” The Star called them — have been seeking more families. The new government committed to taking in 25,000 Syrian refugees and then raised the total by tens of thousands.
想成爲贊助者的民衆迫不及待地尋找更多家庭——《星報》(The Star)稱他們是“一羣憤怒的熱心人”。新政府承諾接納2.5萬名敘利亞難民，後來又把總數提高到了數萬人。
“I can’t provide refugees fast enough for all the Canadians who want to sponsor them,” John McCallum, the country’s immigration minister, said in an interview.
“對於那些希望提供幫助的加拿大人，我沒有辦法馬上提供那麼多的難民，”加拿大負責移民事務的部長約翰·麥卡勒姆(John McCallum)在採訪中說。
Advocates for sponsorship believe that private citizens can achieve more than the government alone, raising the number of refugees admitted, guiding newcomers more effectively and potentially helping solve the puzzle of how best to resettle Muslims in Western countries. The fear is that all of this effort could end badly, with the Canadians looking naive in more ways than one.
贊助工作的支持者們相信，與僅靠政府的力量相比，普通公民可以做得更多，同時增加接受移民的數量，並更有效地引導新來者，甚至還有助於解決如何在西方國家重新安置穆斯林這個難題。但也有人擔心，加拿大人在很多方面看起來都太天真，這些努力有可能換來糟糕的結局。
The Syrians are screened, and many sponsors and refugees take offense at the notion that they could be dangerous, saying they are often victims of terrorism themselves. But U.S. officials point out that it is very difficult to track activity in the chaotic, multifaceted Syrian war. Several Islamic State members involved in the 2015 Paris attacks arrived on Europe’s shores from Syria posing as refugees.
敘利亞人經過了篩查，很多贊助者和難民都覺得，把難民視爲危險人物是一種侮辱，他們說，難民也往往是恐怖主義的受害者。但是美國官員指出，在混亂複雜的敘利亞戰爭中，很難追溯一個人的行爲。有幾個捲入2015年巴黎恐怖襲擊事件的伊斯蘭國成員都是僞裝成難民，從敘利亞來到歐洲。
Some of the refugees in Canada have middle- and upper-class backgrounds. But many more face steep paths to integration, with no money of their own, uncertain employment prospects and huge cultural gaps. Some had never heard of Canada until shortly before coming here.
一些來到加拿大的難民有中產或上層階級背景。但是更多難民需要面對艱難的融合之路，他們沒有錢、就業前景不明，還面臨巨大的文化差異，有些人甚至到來前不久，才聽說加拿大這個地方。
And volunteers cannot fully anticipate what they may confront — clashing expectations of whether Syrian women should work, tensions over how money is spent, families that are still dependent when the year is up, disagreements within sponsor groups.
志願者們也不能完全預料到自己可能面對的情況：對敘利亞女性是否應該工作的預期存在衝突；金錢的用途可能導致的緊張；一年過後，這些家庭有可能仍然無法獨立；贊助小組內部也會產生分歧。
Still, by mid-April, only eight weeks after their first encounter with McLorg, the Mohammads had a downtown apartment with a pristine kitchen, bikes for the children to zip around the courtyard, and a Canadian flag taped to their window.
然而，到4月中旬，距離見過麥克朗格第一面僅八週之後，穆罕默德一家已經在鬧市擁有了一套帶有全新廚房的公寓，孩子們可以在院子裏騎自行車，他們的窗戶上貼着一面加拿大國旗。
Abdullah Mohammad searched for the right words to describe what the sponsors had done for him. “It’s like I’ve been on fire, and now I’m safe in the water,” he said.
阿卜杜拉·穆罕默德尋找着合適的字眼來描述贊助者們爲他所做的事。“就好像我本來着火了，現在我安全地呆在水裏了，”他說。
There still was some culture shock. When Abdullah Mohammad took the children to a community pool, he encountered a woman in a string bikini. “I ran away,” he said later. “I’ve never seen that before in my life.”
文化衝擊還是存在。阿卜杜拉·穆罕默德帶孩子們到社區泳池是，遇到一個穿吊帶比基尼的女人。“我跑開了，”他後來說，“我這輩子從未見過這樣的情景。”
In mid-May, at the end of a routine meeting with the sponsors and the Mohammads, McLorg shared news of her own: She had breast cancer. Now that she was facing surgery, she was the one who was vulnerable, and the Syrians were the ones who were checking on her.
5月中旬，在贊助者與穆罕默德一家的例會上，麥克朗格說了一件自己的事：她患了乳腺癌。她要做手術了，現在她成了脆弱的一方，那家敘利亞人變成了關照她的人。
They brought flowers and chocolates; the other sponsors, now practiced in the logistics of caring, offered meal deliveries and other assistance. “I had no intention of building my own support group, but I have one now,” McLorg said.
他們爲她帶來鮮花和巧克力；其他的贊助人現在負責照顧她，爲她送餐，提供其他幫助。“我從來沒想過建立自己的支援小組，但是現在我有了一個，”麥克朗格說。
Bayan and Batoul, the two oldest Mohammad children, made get-well cards using the same set of watercolors the sponsors had used to make greeting signs that first day at the airport hotel. The morning after McLorg’s operation, when she made her way down to her living room, the cards were the first things she saw.
穆罕默德家的老大和老二——巴揚(Bayan)和巴圖爾(Batoul)用各位贊助人第一天在機場繪製歡迎標識的那套水彩顏料製作了慰問卡。麥克朗格手術翌日早上，當她回到自家客廳，那些卡片是她看到的第一樣東西。
