【波士顿双语网讯】在全美华人联合会（UCA）等团体的努力下，麻省理工学院（MIT）现任校长拉斐尔·莱夫（L. Rafael Reif）6月25日向全校师生发了一封题为“移民如同氧气”的公开信。针对MIT华裔人员遭遇的艰难处境，莱夫在信中呼吁，在维护国家安全的同时，不可盲目无证据怀疑、营造恐怖气氛。他指出美国应当保持国际性协作精神，认同移民是新鲜血液、是保持繁荣的活力能量，如果持续对外来人才施加歧视和怀疑，学院乃至国家都会付出长期代价。
据悉，莱夫校长（上图）是一名委内瑞拉裔美国工程师，现年68岁。他在斯坦福大学获得电气工程博士学位，其后主要研究三维集成电路和环保型微电子制造，是13项专利的发明者或共同发明者。他于1980年加入MIT，2012年7月接任MIT校长一职。2017年11月，莱夫当选为中国工程院院士。
对于日渐严苛的国籍歧视与学术审查，MIT并非唯一发声的学府。今年3月，哈佛大学现任校长劳伦斯·巴科（Lawrence Bacow）访问北大、清华，希望中美双方高校保持并深化交流合作，指出教育文化领域的互动对促进中美关系十分重要。5月23日，耶鲁大学发布题为“耶鲁大学对国际学生和学者的坚定承诺”的公开信，署名为现任校长苏必德（Peter Salovey），同样认同开放多元才能成就一所顶尖院校，承诺国际学生和学者在耶鲁校园永远受到欢迎和尊重。此外，斯坦福大学、加州大学伯克利分校、密歇根大学、特拉华大学等知名学府皆发文声援，担忧基于国籍的学术歧视将造成严重后果，重申欢迎国际学生和学者造访交流。
以下为公开信中文翻译：
致MIT的每一位成员：
与我们的国家一样，MIT发展得很好。因为MIT始终是一块磁铁，吸引着全球最优秀的人才。MIT是一个世界性的实验室，不论人们来自何种文化背景，都可以在这里相互激励，共同创造未来。
可是今天，由于一些MIT华裔人员遭遇的艰难处境，我必须表达自己的沮丧之情。正因我们向来以朋友、同事之谊珍惜他们，所以他们的困境、以及这困境背后更广泛的国家性难题，应当引起我们所有人的关注。
当前情况
美国与中国已在日益紧张的外交关系上缠斗许久，在此背景下，美国政府对以个人为单位从事的学术间谍活动逐渐提高警惕。所谓学术间谍，通常被解释为中国政府为获取高科技知识产权而组织的系统性行为。
我校机构涵盖林肯实验室（MIT Lincoln Laboratory），作为这样一间学院的校长，我对国家安全自然再重视不过。我很清楚地意识到学术间谍活动会带来怎样的危机与风险，为此，MIT已制定一系列细致谨慎的政策，用以防范此类破坏行为。
但在处理这些危机时，我们必须尽最大可能避免制造恐慌气氛、规避以无缘由的怀疑散布恐惧。纵观全国案例，或许有极少数中国背景的研究人员行为不良，但他们是远在体制之外的例外。然而，在我们身边，有许多教职员工、博士后、研究人员、学生群体向我倾诉，如今他们在与政府机构打交道时紧张不安，时常面对着不公平的详细审查和被污名化——仅仅因为他们是华裔。
此类情况与MIT的协作能力和开放理想相去甚远，甚至对我们的精神有所腐蚀。从我们的中国籍、美籍华裔同事口中听闻这些困难，无疑令人神伤。作为学者、教师、导师、发明家、企业家，他们都是MIT模范性的成员，也是美国社会杰出的贡献者。令我深感不安的是，他们的贡献却以普遍的不被信任、不被尊重作为回报。
世界信号
MIT的国际性社区与自由的科学设想交流，承载着无限价值。我们这些直接接触其益处的人，更应该了解这些同事所承受的痛苦，这一信息已经随着美国之声散布世界，日益严峻。
他们经历着长期的签证延误。我们基于宗教、种族、民族、国籍，对大部分移民群体及更多群体加以刺耳粗劣之辞。总体而言，这些行为和政策足以传递出这样的一个信息：美国正在关闭国门，我们不再期冀成为磁铁，吸引世界上最有动力和创造力的人才。我确信，这与美国的成功并不一致。 这与MIT的繁荣并不一致。我们应该预计到，国家和MIT将为此付出何等严重的长期代价。
请允许我郑重、热情、友好地向每一位MIT环球社区的成员说：与君共事，我们是开心的、自豪的、幸运的！世界各地的MIT校友们：我们仍旧是一个社区团体，以共享的价值观和理想相连！所有正在成长的英才们：如果你对创造更美好的世界心怀热情，如果你希望加入MIT社区，我们欢迎你的创造力、欢迎你无法阻挡的能量和抱负——我们衷心希望你能找到加入我们的方法。
今年五月，世界损失了一位创造巨匠：建筑师贝聿铭（I.M. Pei）。他是MIT1940级毕业生。他在上海、香港长大，17岁时来到美国求学。从波士顿到巴黎，从中国到华盛顿，他都留下了标志性建筑，我们MIT校园中也有他的遗作。据他自己说，他的一生是生长在中国根上的一生。然而，当他以102岁高龄辞世，《波士顿环球报》（Boston Globe）称他为“他那代人中最杰出的美国建筑师”。
感谢美国的移民体制，我作为一位移民也获得了生存空间。而所有这些不同的事实，可能在同一时代同时成立。
在四十年学术生涯中，我发现大学有一股隐含的能量。每一年秋季，校园都会由于新生潮焕然一新。同理，我相信美国的天才之处，总有一部分是持续地由移民群体带来新鲜血液。他们心怀激情与活力，兼具大无畏与独创性，由对美好生活的渴望驱使而来。
对于确保国家安全、管理升级我国移民制度，自然有严肃措施的一席之地。撇开当前甚嚣尘上的议论不谈，美国清晰且嘹亮地向全球传递的声音，应当是移民对于理解美国如何成为并保持乐观、开放、创新、繁荣至关重要，这是一个永无止境的、代代更新的故事。
在我们这样的国家，移民如同一种氧气，每一次移民新潮都为整个国家躯体重新供能。作为一个社会，我们向移民提供机遇作为礼物，收到的回报是共享的未来的活力燃料。我相信，这份智慧将始终指引我们在MIT的生活和工作。我也希望，这份智慧能继续指引我们的国家。
诚挚地，
拉斐尔·莱夫
以下为公开信英文原文：
Letter to the MIT community: Immigration is a kind of oxygen
To the members of the MIT community,
MIT has flourished, like the United States itself, because it has been a magnet for the world’s finest talent, a global laboratory where people from every culture and background inspire each other and invent the future, together.
Today, I feel compelled to share my dismay about some circumstances painfully relevant to our fellow MIT community members of Chinese descent. And I believe that because we treasure them as friends and colleagues, their situation and its larger national context should concern us all.
The situation
As the US and China have struggled with rising tensions, the US government has raised serious concerns about incidents of alleged academic espionage conducted by individuals through what is widely understood as a systematic effort of the Chinese government to acquire high-tech IP.
As head of an institute that includes MIT Lincoln Laboratory, I could not take national security more seriously. I am well aware of the risks of academic espionage, and MIT has established prudent policies to protect against such breaches.
But in managing these risks, we must take great care not to create a toxic atmosphere of unfounded suspicion and fear. Looking at cases across the nation, small numbers of researchers of Chinese background may indeed have acted in bad faith, but they are the exception and very far from the rule. Yet faculty members, post-docs, research staff and students tell me that, in their dealings with government agencies, they now feel unfairly scrutinized, stigmatized and on edge – because of their Chinese ethnicity alone.
Nothing could be further from – or more corrosive to – our community’s collaborative strength and open-hearted ideals. To hear such reports from Chinese and Chinese-American colleagues is heartbreaking. As scholars, teachers, mentors, inventors and entrepreneurs, they have been not only exemplary members of our community but exceptional contributors to American society. I am deeply troubled that they feel themselves repaid with generalized mistrust and disrespect.
The signal to the world
For those of us who know firsthand the immense value of MIT’s global community and of the free flow of scientific ideas, it is important to understand the distress of these colleagues as part of an increasingly loud signal the US is sending to the world.
Protracted visa delays. Harsh rhetoric against most immigrants and a range of other groups, because of religion, race, ethnicity or national origin. Together, such actions and policies have turned the volume all the way up on the message that the US is closing the door – that we no longer seek to be a magnet for the world’s most driven and creative individuals. I believe this message is not consistent with how America has succeeded. I am certain it is not how the Institute has succeeded. And we should expect it to have serious long-term costs for the nation and for MIT.
For the record, let me say with warmth and enthusiasm to every member of MIT’s intensely global community: We are glad, proud and fortunate to have you with us! To our alumni around the world: We remain one community, united by our shared values and ideals! And to all the rising talent out there: If you are passionate about making a better world, and if you dream of joining our community, we welcome your creativity, we welcome your unstoppable energy and aspiration – and we hope you can find a way to join us.
In May, the world lost a brilliant creative force: architect I.M. Pei, MIT Class of 1940. Raised in Shanghai and Hong Kong, he came to the United States at 17 to seek an education. He left a legacy of iconic buildings from Boston to Paris and China to Washington, DC, as well on our own campus. By his own account, he consciously stayed alive to his Chinese roots all his life. Yet, when he died at the age of 102, the Boston Globe described him as “the most prominent American architect of his generation.”
Thanks to the inspired American system that also made room for me as an immigrant, all of those facts can be true at the same time.
As I have discovered through 40 years in academia, the hidden strength of a university is that every fall, it is refreshed by a new tide of students. I am equally convinced that part of the genius of America is that it is continually refreshed by immigration – by the passionate energy, audacity, ingenuity and drive of people hungry for a better life.
There is certainly room for a wide range of serious positions on the actions necessary to ensure our national security and to manage and improve our nation’s immigration system. But above the noise of the current moment, the signal I believe we should be sending, loud and clear, is that the story of American immigration is essential to understanding how the US became, and remains, optimistic, open-minded, innovative and prosperous – a story of never-ending renewal.
In a nation like ours, immigration is a kind of oxygen, each fresh wave reenergizing the body as a whole. As a society, when we offer immigrants the gift of opportunity, we receive in return vital fuel for our shared future. I trust that this wisdom will always guide us in the life and work of MIT. And I hope it can continue to guide our nation.
Sincerely,
L. Rafael Reif