Letter to the MIT community: Immigration is a kind of oxygen

MIT News Office 
June 25, 2019

The following email was sent today to the MIT community by President L. Rafael Reif.

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.


麻省理工学院社区的成员们：

像我们的国家一样，麻省理工学院一直在蓬勃发展，它像磁铁一样吸引世界上最优秀的人才。在一个全球化的实验室里，来自不同文化和背景的人们互相激励，共同创造未来。 

今天，我不得不对我们麻省理工学院的华裔成员愈为艰难的处境感到沮丧。他们是我们的朋友和同事，我们所有人都应该关心他们身处的环境和身后更大的背景气氛。

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.

目前的情况 

由于美中关系日益紧张，美国政府怀疑中国政府通过包括学术间谍在内的活动，系统性地获取高科技知识产权。

作为包括林肯实验室在内的麻省理工学院的校长，我十分认真地看待国家安全问题。我很清楚学术间谍活动的风险，麻省理工学院也制定了严格的政策来防范此类违规行为。

但在管控这些风险时，我们必须非常小心，不要制造毫无根据的、有毒害的怀疑和恐惧氛围。从全国各地的案例看来，少数具有中国背景的研究人员可能确实是出于恶意行事，但他们只是个例，而且远非常态。然而，现在许多教师、博士后、研究人员和学生告诉我，仅仅因为中国出生或血统背景，导致他们在与政府机构打交道时，明显感觉到受到不公正的审查，被贴标签和边缘化。

没有什么比这个更能腐蚀我们社区的协同合作和自由开放的气氛。华裔同事的这些处境，令人心碎。作为学者、教师、导师、发明家和企业家，他们不仅是我们社区的模范成员，也是美国社会的杰出贡献者。我为他们受到普遍的不信任和不尊重而深感困扰。

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.

向世界发出的信号 

对于我们这些直接受益于麻省理工学院地球村以及科学无国界的巨大价值的人来说，了解这些同事的痛苦是非常重要的，这是美国向世界发出的越来越强烈的信号。

签证被长期延误，许多移民和不同的群体因为宗教、种族、民族或者血统等原因，而遭到过激的诋毁。总而言之，这些行动和政策已经呱噪地发出一个信号：美国正在关上移民的大门——我们不再感兴趣做吸引世界上最具积极性和创造力的人的磁铁。我相信这个信号与美国的成功方式是背道而驰的。我也确信这不是MIT的成功之道。我们很快就能意识到，美国和麻省理工学院将为此付出长期的、严重的代价。

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.

请允许我对麻省理工学院的每一位成员表达诚挚的热情：拥有你们，我们很高兴，很自豪，很幸运！麻省理工的全球校友们：我们是一个具有共同的价值观和理念的团结的社区！所有成长中的才华横溢的人们：如果你热衷于创造一个更美好的世界，如果你梦想加入我们，我们欢迎你非凡的创造力，欢迎你旺盛的精力和愿景——希望你能加入我们。

* * * 

今年五月，世界失去了一个杰出的创作大家：麻省理工学院1940届毕业生、建筑大师贝聿铭(I.M. Pei)。他在上海和香港长大，17岁时来到美国求学。从波士顿到巴黎，从中国到华盛顿特区，包括我们MIT的校园，他都留下了标志性的建筑传奇。按照他自己的说法，他一生都不忘他的中国根。然而，当他在102岁去世时，波士顿环球报将他形容为“他那一代最杰出的美国建筑师”。

作为移民，我同样受益于美国的系统，获得了创造和发展的空间，所有这些都同时真实地存在着。

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

我通过40年的学术界的工作经验发现，大学的强大秘密武器是，每年秋天吸收一批新的学生，得以注入新的活力。我同样坚信，美国天才的一面也部分得益于不断吸收移民——渴望更美好生活的人们，带着充满激情的能量、无畏、聪明和无限动力。

在确保国家安全以及改革移民系统的行动方面，美国确实还有很多空间可以拔高并需要重申一些立场。但是跳离当前的噪音，我们应该发出响亮而清晰的信号，美国之所以成为美国，并一直保持乐观、开放、创新和繁荣，移民前赴后继的贡献功不可没。

在我们这个国家，移民是一种氧气，每一波新鲜的浪潮都会使社会整体获得活力。作为一个社会，当我们为移民提供机会时，我们收获的是建设共同未来的重要动力。我相信，在麻省理工学院的生活和工作中，这种智慧将永远引领我们。我也希望它能够继续引领我们的国家前进。

此致， 

校长拉斐尔•莱夫