印度應實行綠卡制度 India's impermanent residents
Friends of mine — a European couple who have been in India for more than 15 years, and whose two children were born here — recently left Delhi to go back to Europe for the holidays. They hope to return by the time school starts up again in January. But they aren’t so sure they will.
我有兩個朋友是一對在印度呆了15年以上的歐洲夫婦，他們的孩子也是在印度出生的。他們最近從德里返回歐洲度假。他們希望在1月份學校再次開學前回去。但他們不確定能否能夠回去。
The reason for their doubt is that, along with celebrating the holidays, they have to deal with a bit of bureaucracy: reapplying for new visas back in what India’s government refers to as their “home country”, whose passports they still carry.
他們感到懷疑的原因在於，除了歡慶假期以外，他們還不得不應對一點繁文縟節：他們要在印度政府所稱的他們的“祖國”重新申請簽證，他們仍持有那個國家的護照。
Despite my friends’ long tenure here, and the fact that the husband owns a Delhi-based design company employing 12 Indian professionals, New Delhi still requires them to return to Europe every five years for their permission to live in India to be reassessed. That is because there is no path to legal permanent residency for foreigners who are not of Indian ancestry, except through marriage or by giving up their original citizenship to become naturalised.
儘管我的朋友們在印度生活了很長時間，兩人中的丈夫還在德里擁有一家僱傭了12名印度專業人士的設計公司，印度政府依然要求他們每5年返回歐洲一次，以對他們居留印度的許可進行重新評估。這是因爲除了通過和印度人結婚或者放棄原有國籍入籍印度以外，沒有印度血統的外國人沒有在印度獲得合法永久居留權的路徑。
Much like Israel’s “right of return” for Jews around the world, India opens its doors to foreign nationals of ethnic Indian origins, provided neither they nor their ancestors come from what are now Pakistan or Bangladesh.
和以色列賦予世界各地猶太人的“迴歸權”很像，印度也對印度裔外籍人士敞開大門——只要他們自身或者他們的祖先不是來自現在的巴基斯坦或者孟加拉國。
Foreigners of Indian ancestry are considered “Overseas Citizens of India”, allowed to live and work here indefinitely without giving up their foreign citizenship, although they cannot vote or run for office. The ethnic diaspora is seen as “umbilically connected” to the Motherland.
擁有印度血統的外國人被視爲“海外印度公民”。儘管無法投票或者參選，但這些人無需放棄自己的外國國籍就可以無限期地在印度生活和工作。散居海外的僑民被視爲與祖國“血脈相連”。
But foreigners who don’t have Indian blood and are not married to someone who has are not accorded such privileges, no matter how long they’ve been in the country, or how much they’ve invested in building a business. Long-term foreign residents are treated with suspicion. Their visas come with varying inconvenient conditions — such as having to leave the country every six months (for those on business visas), or returning to their “home country” annually or every five years to reapply, often with changing documentation requirements.
但沒有印度血統，也沒有和印度人結婚的外國人就無法享受這種特權了——無論他們在這個國家居留了多長時間，或者爲了在印度建立企業投資了多少。長期在印度居留的外國人受到懷疑。他們的簽證附帶各種各樣不方便的條件——比如（持商業簽證的人）必須每6個月離開印度，或者他們需要每年或每5年返回“祖國”重新申請簽證，往往文件要求還有變化。
“I just had no idea if I was ever going to be allowed back in this country,” one long-term American resident, who has owned a business here for two decades, recalled after a vexing recent visa run to the US. “It was the worst feeling of my life.”
“我不知道自己還會不會允許被回到這個國家，”一位美國籍長期居留者（此人擁有一家印度企業已經20年了）回憶起最近一次回到美國辦簽證的惱人經歷時說，“那是我一生中感覺最糟糕的時候。”
The only way for a non-ethnic Indian foreigner to obtain long-term residency rights (apart from marriage) is to become a naturalised Indian after seven years here. But — in common with other countries such as Austria, China and Norway — India does not permit dual nationality so they have to relinquish their original citizenship.
對非印度裔外國人而言，（除了婚姻以外）獲取長期居留權的唯一方法是在居留印度7年後申請加入印度籍。但是，和奧地利、中國和挪威一樣，印度不允許雙重國籍，因此想要歸化入籍就必須放棄自己原來的國籍。
That is a step few want to take — with rare exceptions such as Italy-born Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi, widow of the former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and prominent Belgium-born economist Jean Drèze.
很少有人願意採取這一步，除了極其少有的例外，比如前總理拉吉夫甘地(Rajiv Gandhi)的遺孀、意大利出生的國大黨主席索妮婭甘地(Sonia Gandhi)，以及在比利時出生的著名經濟學家讓德雷茲(Jean Drèze)。
“There is no halfway house in India,” one official told me. “They have to choose which country they love more. You can’t say we love India, but we love Britain more.”
“在印度沒有折中的辦法，”一名官員告訴我，“他們必須選擇他們更愛哪個國家。你不能說我們愛印度，但我們更愛英國。”
Such a stand is ironic, given how many Indian citizens obtain legal permanent residency in the US and UK without having to give up their original citizenship. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, more than 600,000 Indian citizens in the past decade received green cards, which allow them to live and work in the US indefinitely, without forfeiting their Indian citizenship. In 2013, the UK granted indefinite leave to remain — essentially permanent residency — to more than 26,000 Indian citizens.
考慮有不少印度公民不必放棄原有國籍就獲得了美國和英國的永久居留權，這樣的立場很諷刺。根據美國國土安全部(DHS)的數據，過去10年有60多萬印度公民獲得了美國綠卡，可以無限期地在美國生活和工作，且不會失去他們的印度公民身份。2013年，英國授予了超過2.6萬名印度公民無限期居留許可——相當於永久居留權。
But India offers no such welcome to foreign residents. “You can invest, but there is no long-term security,” my European, Hindi-speaking friend griped while packing last week.
但印度對居留印度的外國人就沒這麼歡迎了。“你可以投資，但是沒有長期保障，”我那個能說印地語的歐洲朋友上週在打點行李時抱怨道。
Mark Runacres, a former British diplomat who now owns an executive search firm in India, believes New Delhi’s approach is a legacy of its autarkic past. “As far as they were concerned, there was only one circumstance in which foreigners came and that was if their employers sent them,” Mr Runacres said. “They simply didn’t think in terms of foreign business people who wanted to come here and set up businesses.”
在印度擁有一家獵頭公司的英國前外交官馬克拉納克斯(Mark Runacres)相信，印度政府的做法是過去閉關自守時代的遺留影響。“在他們眼中，外國人來印度只有一種情況，就是僱主派他們來這裏的時候，”拉納克斯說，“他們完全沒有從希望來印度開辦企業的外國商務人士的視角來考慮問題。”
As India seeks to promote itself as a dynamic and creative global economic hub, it could do with a more welcoming approach to global citizens.
隨着印度尋求將自身宣傳爲一個充滿活力和創造力的全球經濟中心，印度需要用一種更友好的姿態來歡迎全球公民。
