2015考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》移民政策做了些什么

　　2015考研英语复习正是强化复习阶段，考研英语阅读在考研英语中占了40分，所以考研英语阅读是英语科目中重要的一项。新东方名师范猛老师曾建议过考研生需要坚持每天泛读10-15分钟的英文原刊。强烈推荐了杂志《经济学人》杂志中的文章也是考研英语的主要材料来源.希望考研考生认真阅读，快速提高考研英语阅读水平。

　　Immigration

　　移民

　　What have the immigrants ever done for us?

　　移民政策为我们做了些什么?

　　Rather a lot, according to a new piece of research

　　根据一项新的研究得出，移民政策做了挺多贡献的

　　PESKY immigrants. They move to Britain, takingjobs, scrounging welfare benefits, straining healthservices, overrunning local schools and occupying state-subsidised housing. That, at least, isthe story recounted by politicians from the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and, increasingly, bymembers of the Conservative Party. A new study by two economists tells a very different tale.

　　讨厌的移民者们。他们搬到英国，获得工作，讨要福利，占用卫生服务，挤爆当地学校并且占领保障性住房。至少这是英国独立党和越来越多的保守党成员所讲述的故事。然而两位经济学家的一项新研究却得出了一个完全不同的理论。

　　Concern about the economic impact of immigration has centred on two areas: the effectforeigners have on native workers'wages and employment; and the extent to which immigrants,in particular those from countries within the European Union who are free to move around atwill, take from a system to which they have contributed little. Research by Christian Dustmannof University College London and Tommaso Frattini of the University of Milan focuses on thesecond.

　　对移民带来的经济影响的关注主要集中在两个方面：一是外国人对当地工人工资和就业率的影响;二是移民们从这样的移民体制中所获益处，尤其是来自欧盟成员国的移民，因为他们可以随意活动，但对所在的移民体系贡献少之又少。由伦敦大学学院的克里斯蒂安·达斯特曼和米兰大学的托马索·弗拉提尼共同合作的调查研究主要就集中于第二点。

　　By calculating European immigrants'share of the cost of government spending and theircontribution to government revenues, the scholars estimate that between 1995 and 2011 themigrants made a positive contribution of more than 4 billion to Britain, compared with anoverall negative contribution of 591 billion for native Britons. Between 2001 and 2011, thenet fiscal contribution of recent arrivals from the eastern European countries that have joinedthe EU since 2004 has amounted to almost 5 billion. Even during the worst years of the financialcrisis, in 2007-11, they made a net contribution of almost 2 billion to British public finances.Migrants from other European countries chipped in 8.6 billion.

　　通过计算欧洲移民在政府支出所占份额和他们对政府收益所作的贡献，学者们估计在1995年和2011年间，相较于英国本国人所做的5910亿英镑的负面贡献，移民对英国做出了至少40亿英镑(约合64亿美元)的正面贡献。在2001至2011年间，从自2004年加入欧盟的东欧国家来的新移民所做的净财政贡献总计50亿英镑。即便是在金融危机最糟糕的2007至2011那几年，他们对英国公共财政的净财政贡献也有将近20亿英镑。从欧洲其它国家来的移民所作贡献零零散散也有86亿英镑。

　　The authors point out that the cost of some government services—in particular “pure publicgoods” such as defence spending—remains the same no matter what the population, so theoverall cost of providing them to immigrants is zero. Calculate the amount per person, and theprice for Britons goes down as the number of immigrants rises, since the cost is sharedbetween a larger number of individuals.

　　两位作者指出一些政府服务的支出—尤其是例如国防支出等“纯公共”项目—与服务人数毫无关系，因此总体而言，政府在移民身上的此类开销为零。如果要计算英国人均公共服务消费情况，因为移民的加入，这个数值应该还更低，因为分摊的人头数更大。

　　Immigrants'overall positive contribution is explained in part by the fact that they are less likelythan natives to claim benefits or to live in social housing. Between 1998 and 2011 as many as37% of natives were receiving some kind of state benefit or tax credit; European immigrantswere nearly eight percentage points less likely to collect them. Those from Europe were alsothree percentage points less likely to live in social housing than Britons.

　　总体来产生了积极的影响，有一部分原因是他们比起当地人，不太可能讨得福利或住到公益住房。1998至2011年间有高达37%的当地人得到了一些国家福利和税收抵免政策;欧洲移民得到的福利还不到当地人的8个百分点。这些移民所住的公益住房也不到英国人的3个百分点。

　　Mr Dustmann and Mr Frattini acknowledge that the benefits of immigration may be related tothe fact that migrants tend to be young. But, they point out, it is likely that many recentmigrants will return home, to enjoy their less productive later years—when they may cost thestate more in terms of health care, for instance. They also argue that the youth of many recentarrivals means that they are at the beginning of their careers—and may be underemployedbecause of a lack of language skills, for example—so have not yet reached their full economicpotential. The contributions of those who stay in Britain may well increase. It is a new form offoreign direct investment.

　　达斯特曼和法拉提尼承认移民的好处或许也与移民者趋于年轻化有关。但是，他们指出，似乎最近很多移民都将回到家乡，其中一个原因是他们年老时即使挣得少了，也可以获得更好的卫生保健福利保证晚年幸福。这两位作者还提到新移民中年轻人的到来意味着他们的事业才刚刚开始—比如有的因为语言不通还没有就业—那么他们还没有到完全发挥他们经济潜力的时候。留在英国的移民所做的贡献可能会持续增加。这是一种新形式的外国直接投资。译者：邵夏沁 校对：胡雅琳 徐珍

文章来源：经济学人