PBS高端访谈:暑期出国工作签证大热

 　　JEFFREY BROWN:Next, who's filling that summer job?

　　NewsHour economics correspondent Paul Solman looks at a program bringing in student workers from around the world. It's part of his ongoing¹ reporting, Making Sense of financial news.

　　EMMETT WOODS, Emmett's Castle: We're going to die for this game today. And we want to win it.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:Emmett Woods, pumping up his Gaelic football team before a recent home match in Rockland County, N.Y.

　　EMMETT WOODS:This is our field. This is Rockland's field. And we control this field.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:Among Woods' recruits, Irish students here for the summer to play and work, like Cormac McLeron.

　　CORMAC MCLERON, Ireland: He can help us with accommodation, sort us out with jobs, and all we had to do is just play football for his team.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:McLeron is one of some 85,000 collegians from 190 countries with J-1 visas, thanks to the State Department's Summer Work Travel Program, launched during the Cold War to promote goodwill² abroad.

　　But with youth unemployment now in double digits³, U.S. firms hiring foreigners, even if just for the summer, is causing bad will at home.

　　Jerry Kammer of the Center for Immigration Studies, known for its skepticism about the benefits of immigration.

　　JERRY KAMMER, Center for Immigration Studies: They are disenfranchising young American workers who need these jobs. Their motivation is not good international relations. Their motivation is the bottom line.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:Not so, says Robin⁴ Lerner, who oversees⁵ the program at the State Department.

　　ROBIN LERNER, U.S. State Department: One of our most effective tools in engaging with other countries is through people-to-people contact. They're unskilled seasonal⁶ and temporary jobs.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:So, goodwill or cheap labor⁷?

　　Emmett Woods employs 25 to 30 Americans at the modestly named pub Emmett's Castle. But he's also hired Cormac McLeron to wash dishes, to lug⁸ lager to the cellar...

　　EMMETT WOODS:I hope you ate your Wheaties.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:...to set tables on the patio⁹.

　　Woods says McLeron will take home a happy picture of America and will foster global goodwill here.

　　EMMETT WOODS:I like to put a little bit of Irish charm and humor into it.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:McLeron also thinks there's a payoff at the pub.

　　CORMAC MCLERON: If they're coming to an Irish bar, maybe speaking to the real Irish people, like, it sort of heightens the experience, I suppose.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:Even if they don't always speak brogue.

　　CORMAC MCLERON:Most Americans are struggling to make us out. So they are.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:So, yes, we went goodwill hunting in New York and found it, found it at a swim club in Manassas, Va., too, where Chinese lifeguard Eric Wang was buffing his English while learning about America.

　　ERIC WANG, China: Americans like to make jokes, always make jokes with me, but I didn't understand what they said.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:So, they laugh, but you're not exactly sure why they're laughing?

　　ERIC WANG: Sometimes they laugh, but I just stand there, and they told me, it's a joke. I just ah-ha-ha like this.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:Doug Winkler's been hiring J-1s like Wang for a decade to lifeguard at the 225 pools he manages in the D.C. area.

　　DOUG WINKLER, manager: We use about 50 percent we say domestic, American guards, and 50 percent international, and it's the mix of both.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:He hires J-1s not just because they add cultural breadth, he says.

　　DOUG WINKLER: The international students have a tremendous work ethic¹⁰. They show up on time, and they work hard, and they work to the end of their shift, and they often inquire, what else can I do?

　　PAUL SOLMAN:Key question: Isn't this taking jobs away from Americans?

　　DOUG WINKLER:I really don't think so. We have a tremendous recruiting effort. We use Craigslist. We use some advertising¹¹ agencies. We do high schools.

　　We do not get enough American applicants¹² to fill all the positions. I'm a firm believer that, in the areas where this high youth unemployment exists, that some of those youths don't want jobs.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:Company vice¹³ president Chris Waters says they have got too much else going on.

　　CHRIS WATERS: Prom, baccalaureate, graduation, beach week, Fourth of July, vacation, football, lacrosse, everything else, all the fall sports.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:In Rockland County, restaurateur Woods had a more basic complaint.

　　EMMETT WOODS:I couldn't get an American to wash dishes. I find it very hard to get American help that would do some of the jobs.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:But Jerry Kammer says employers like Woods and Winkler overstate the efforts they make, downplay the benefits to them.

　　JERRY KAMMER:There are a lot of employers who know that they have a smoking deal with this program. Why recruit when you have recruitment done for you at no cost by the Summer Work Travel Program?

　　This program provides no incentives¹⁵ for American employers to hire American kids. It provides plenty of incentives for American employers to hire the SWT kids.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:The main incentive¹⁴, claim the folks at Crystal Aquatics¹⁶, is cost. They hire all-American at their 30 Northern Virginia pools, and vice president Jeff Collins says it hurts business.

　　JEFF COLLINS, Crystal Aquatics: Companies that hire international lifeguards get an 8.45 percent payroll¹⁷ tax savings¹⁸ by not paying federal unemployment tax, Medicare, and Social Security.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:As for American workers being hard to find, Sean Davidson has worked here for five years.

　　SEAN DAVIDSON, Crystal Aquatics: I have people who will come to this pool and they -- you know, they ask if they can get a job to work here, and we have to say, no, that we're full.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:Crystal Aquatics would bring on more locals, says Collins, if they could win more pool management contracts, but:

　　JEFF COLLINS: When we compete against companies that hire international lifeguards, we are consistently higher or at best equal with them. It's hard for us to compete with the international lifeguards.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:In nearby Manassas, Winkler admitted his foreign hires are less expensive than Americans, but says there are hidden J-1 costs.

　　DOUG WINKLER:It's a tremendous effort, requires a lot of people. And they will arrive in the middle of the night. They're in a foreign country. And all they know is to call our phone number.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:Still, cheaper is cheaper, and must be part of the reason companies hire J-1s.

　　But if you offered $12 an hour, you get more American workers?

　　DOUG WINKLER: But I would have no business.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:It's the standard race-to-the-bottom economic argument against foreign workers in general, that they put downward pressure on low-wage workers.

　　But Michael McCarry, who lobbies for firms that take part in the Summer Work Travel Program, claims concerns about its economic impact are overblown.

　　MICHAEL MCCARRY, Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange: The exchange programs are very unlikely have any impact on American employment because of the small number of exchange participants, as compared to the enormous size of the American economy.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:To Jerry Kammer, however, the program's problems go beyond lost jobs and low wages, all the way to exploitation.

　　JERRY KAMMER: There are a lot of employers who take no interest in their cultural experience, and just want to get the work out of them. And the kids are happy, in many instances, to work 12 hours a day, because if you're from Moldova and you're making $8 an hour, that's a lot of money. It's like an American kid going overseas and making $60 an hour. That's the differential.

　　MAN:The effort to bring Hershey's to justice has officially begun today!

　　(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

　　PAUL SOLMAN:The most visible example of apparent exploitation came last summer. Hundreds of J-1 summer workers at a Hershey chocolate warehouse¹⁹ in Pennsylvania walked off the job, claiming overwork and underpay.

　　The State Department banned the firm that placed the workers. Robin Lerner says, this spring, they beefed up protections for foreign workers and Americans, too.

　　ROBIN LERNER:Our May rule includes language that requires that no participant be placed in a job where an American worker is displaced and where there have been layoffs²⁰ and strikes in the past 120 days.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:Lerner emphasizes that, at most places, the original purpose of the Summer Work Travel Program is being served.

　　ROBIN LERNER:We have these university students that are coming here, and they will one day be something in their country. They understand our culture. They understand our customs, and they will be sympathetic and friendly toward us. And that's important.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:The kids we met certainly seemed to like America so far.

　　Ihor Bilousov came from the Ukraine.

　　IHOR BILOUSOV, Ukraine: If I ask you something, for example, in the shops, you answer me with pleasure. And that is nice that you are so friendly and nice people.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:As for problems, Cormac McLeron's seem downright trivial.

　　CORMAC MCLERON:I can't get used to some of the American words, like...

　　PAUL SOLMAN:Like what?

　　CORMAC MCLERON:Like soda²¹ and garbage. It just don't go right. In Ireland, we just call it rubbish and Coke. Even the youth around here are using words like whack²² and just all this sort of stuff. And sometimes you just do not know what it means. You don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

　　PAUL SOLMAN:You don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

　　When it comes to the J-1 Summer Work Travel Program, we wound up with pretty much the same ambivalent²³ conclusion, goodwill for sure, but costing at least some young American jobs.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:And so which countries send the most summer workers to the U.S.? You can find that and an interactive²⁴ map showing where in America they're going. That's on Paul Solman's Making Sense page.

1 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

2 goodwill   

n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉

参考例句：

• His heart is full of goodwill to all men.他心里对所有人都充满着爱心。
• We paid ￡10,000 for the shop,and ￡2000 for its goodwill.我们用一万英镑买下了这家商店，两千英镑买下了它的信誉。

3 digits   

n.数字( digit的名词复数 )；手指，足趾

参考例句：

• The number 1000 contains four digits. 1000是四位数。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The number 410 contains three digits. 数字 410 中包括三个数目字。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

5 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

6 seasonal   

adj.季节的，季节性的

参考例句：

• The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
• The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。

7 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

8 lug   

n.柄，突出部，螺帽；(英）耳朵；（俚）笨蛋；vt.拖，拉，用力拖动

参考例句：

• Nobody wants to lug around huge suitcases full of clothes.谁都不想拖着个装满衣服的大箱子到处走。
• Do I have to lug those suitcases all the way to the station?难道非要我把那些手提箱一直拉到车站去吗？

9 patio   

n.庭院，平台

参考例句：

• Suddenly, the thought of my beautiful patio came to mind. I can be quiet out there,I thought.我又忽然想到家里漂亮的院子，我能够在这里宁静地呆会。
• They had a barbecue on their patio on Sunday.星期天他们在院子里进行烧烤。

10 ethic   

n.道德标准，行为准则

参考例句：

• They instilled the work ethic into their children.他们在孩子们的心中注入了职业道德的理念。
• The connotation of education ethic is rooted in human nature's mobility.教育伦理的内涵根源于人本性的变动性。

11 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

12 applicants   

申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were over 500 applicants for the job. 有500多人申请这份工作。
• He was impressed by the high calibre of applicants for the job. 求职人员出色的能力给他留下了深刻印象。

13 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

14 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

15 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

16 aquatics   

n.水生植物，水生动物( aquatic的名词复数 )；水上运动

参考例句：

• Pasturage breed aquatics basically has pig, ox, sheep and fowl. 畜牧养殖主要有猪、牛、羊和家禽。 来自互联网
• So in English they are National Stadium and National Aquatics Center. 这两处场馆的正式名字叫做”国家体育场”和”国家游泳中心“。 来自互联网

17 payroll   

n.工资表，在职人员名单，工薪总额

参考例句：

• His yearly payroll is $1.2 million.他的年薪是120万美元。
• I can't wait to get my payroll check.我真等不及拿到我的工资单了。

18 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

19 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。

20 layoffs   

临时解雇( layoff的名词复数 )； 停工，停止活动

参考例句：

• Textile companies announced 2000 fresh layoffs last week. 各纺织公司上周宣布再次裁员两千人。
• Stock prices broke when the firm suddenly announced layoffs. 当公司突然宣布裁员时，股票价格便大跌

21 soda   

n.苏打水；汽水

参考例句：

• She doesn't enjoy drinking chocolate soda.她不喜欢喝巧克力汽水。
• I will freshen your drink with more soda and ice cubes.我给你的饮料重加一些苏打水和冰块。

22 whack   

v.敲击，重打，瓜分；n.重击，重打，尝试，一份

参考例句：

• After years of dieting,Carol's metabolism was completely out of whack.经过数年的节食，卡罗尔的新陈代谢完全紊乱了。
• He gave me a whack on the back to wake me up.他为把我弄醒，在我背上猛拍一下。

23 ambivalent   

adj.含糊不定的；(态度等)矛盾的

参考例句：

• She remained ambivalent about her marriage.她对于自己的婚事仍然拿不定主意。
• Although she professed fear of the Russians,she seemed to have ambivalent feelings toward Philby himself.虽然她承认害怕俄国人，然而她似乎对菲尔比本人有一种矛盾的感情。

24 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。