VOA常速英语2015--研究称芝加哥对移民的吸引力下降

Study: Immigration to Chicago Drops 研究称芝加哥对移民的吸引力下降

CHICAGO—

For several years, human resources director Pete Tapaskar says it’s been hard to fill all the open positions at his suburban¹ Chicago-based technology company, ProSoft.

几年来，人力资源总监皮特·塔帕斯卡说，给他在芝加哥郊区的科技公司所有空闲职位找到人选并不容易。

“Getting high skilled people is still a challenge,” he said from his office in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove².

“找到技术精湛的人员仍是个问题。”

To fill those highly skilled tech jobs, Tapaskar recruits from outside the United States. In fact, about 80 percent of ProSoft’s workforce³ is from South Asia, and many, Tapaskar included, came to Chicago on special work visas, known as "H1B's."

为了填满这些对技术要求高的科技职位，塔帕斯卡从美国之外招募人员。ProSoft公司大约80%的员工来自南亚，还有包括塔帕斯卡在内的很多人是持H1B这种特殊工作签证来芝加哥的。

“There is a high demand for the H1B’s" for those who have high tech skills, he said.

“对那些技术水平高的H1B签证持有者的需求很大。”

While the demand for those visas remains⁴ high, many who get them are not choosing Chicago as their top destination. Instead, they choose to work in the south, Tapaskar said, "specifically Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia."

尽管对这种签证的需求量仍很大，塔帕斯卡说很多获得这种签证的人并不选择芝加哥作为其优选目的地。“他们选择去南方，尤其是德克萨斯州、亚特兰大和乔治亚州。”

As populations change in large cities like Chicago, growth depends in part on legal international immigration. But in Chicago, the nation’s third largest city, the numbers show it is not winning the popularity contest for immigrants.

“What we are seeing right now is a substantially decreased total of international in-migration,” said Elizabeth Schuh, principal policy analyst⁵ for the Chicago Metropolitan⁶ Agency for Planning (CMAP). “Prior to the recession we were between 50 and 60 thousand most years. Now, since 2010, we’ve been at about 23- to 24-thousand international in-migration on a net basis.”

“我们目前看到的情况是，国际移民总数量有了很大减少，”伊丽莎白·舒是芝加哥都会规划部的首席政策分析师，她负责研究芝加哥最近的移民趋势。“在衰退之前大多数年份都有5万到6万的移民，自从2010年以来，国际净移民量在2.3万到2.4万之间。”

Immigration was just one component⁷ of a recent study Schuh worked on for CMAP to explore how overall population is changing in the Chicago region.

舒说有些年份会减少三分之二，她说这种大幅度的减少导致了芝加哥总体人口的缓慢增长。芝加哥比其他类似大城市要增长得慢，比如波士顿、洛杉矶和纽约。

Schuh says that dramatic drop — as much as two-thirds some years — contributes to Chicago’s overall stagnant⁸ population growth. Since 2010, she said, "the Chicago region has been growing at a much slower rate than what we would consider to be our peers.”

Those peers include large cities like Boston and New York City, where cold winter weather is similar to that of Chicago. Yet more immigrants are choosing to live in those cities, forcing Chicago down in the rankings of top locations for immigration.

“From 2005 to 2009 ... the Chicago region was 4th in the country in terms of its rank for just the raw number of immigrants it attracted,” Schuh explained. “And for the same number of years from 2009 to 2014, the Chicago region was 8th. So just adding even across all of those years, you are seeing a substantial drop and you are seeing people go to other regions.”

“从2005到2009年，就吸引的全部移民数量来说，芝加哥在全国排名第四。而从2009年到2014年，在这同样长的时间内，芝加哥地区排名第八。所以将全部年份加起来，我们能看到数量急剧下降。”

Those other regions include popular vacation and warm weather states like California and Florida.

But Tapaskar says the skilled legal immigrants he wants to recruit are forfeiting⁹ Chicago and flocking to tech-sector-rich locations such as Texas — for many reasons.

塔帕斯卡说有很多原因可以解释为何移民们选择南部州而不是芝加哥，

“The environment there is ideal for starting a business,” he says. “Could be the taxes are lower, and employers are getting a lot of benefits from the state government.”

“那些地方的环境对开办企业更有力，可能是更低的税收，雇员们能从州政府那里得到更多福利。”

But Tapaskar says one thing that could reverse that trend, and bring new immigrants to Chicago, is increasing the number of overall work visas allocated¹⁰ to immigrants each year, a move he hopes would attract more of the highly-skilled tech workers his business needs.

但塔帕斯卡说，有一种措施可能扭转这一局面，让新移民来芝加哥，那就是增加那种能吸引他公司所需的技术熟练科技人员的工作签证的数量。

1 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

2 grove   

n.林子，小树林，园林

参考例句：

• On top of the hill was a grove of tall trees.山顶上一片高大的树林。
• The scent of lemons filled the grove.柠檬香味充满了小树林。

3 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

6 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

7 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

8 stagnant   

adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的

参考例句：

• Due to low investment,industrial output has remained stagnant.由于投资少，工业生产一直停滞不前。
• Their national economy is stagnant.他们的国家经济停滞不前。

9 forfeiting   

（因违反协议、犯规、受罚等）丧失，失去( forfeit的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• In his eyes, giving up his job and forfeiting his wages amounted practically to suicide. 辞事，让工钱，在祥子看就差不多等于自杀。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• That would be acknowledging the Railroad's ownership right away-forfeiting their rights for good. 这一来不是就等于干脆承认铁路公司的所有权-永久放弃他们自己的主权吗？

10 allocated   

adj. 分配的 动词allocate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The Ford Foundation allocated millions of dollars for cancer research. 福特基金会拨款数百万美元用于癌症研究。
• More funds will now be allocated to charitable organizations. 现在会拨更多的资金给慈善组织。