经济学人472:移民 政策为我们做了些什么？

 　　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, taking jobs, scrounging welfare benefits, straining health services, overrunning local schools and occupying state-subsidised housing. That, at least, is the story recounted by politicians from the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and, increasingly, by members of the Conservative Party. A new study by two economists¹ 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 effect foreigners 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 at will, take from a system to which they have contributed little. Research by Christian² Dustmann of University College London and Tommaso Frattini of the University of Milan focuses on the second.

　　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。

　　移民问题.jpg

　　By calculating European immigrants'share of the cost of government spending and their contribution to government revenues, the scholars estimate that between 1995 and 2011 the migrants made a positive contribution of more than 4 billion to Britain, compared with an overall negative contribution of 591 billion for native Britons. Between 2001 and 2011, the net fiscal³ contribution of recent arrivals from the eastern European countries that have joined the EU since 2004 has amounted to almost 5 billion. Even during the worst years of the financial crisis, 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 public goods” such as defence spending—remains the same no matter what the population, so the overall cost of providing them to immigrants is zero. Calculate the amount per person, and the price for Britons goes down as the number of immigrants rises, since the cost is shared between 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 likely than natives to claim benefits or to live in social housing. Between 1998 and 2011 as many as 37% of natives were receiving some kind of state benefit or tax credit; European immigrants were nearly eight percentage points less likely to collect them. Those from Europe were also three 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 to the fact that migrants tend to be young. But, they point out, it is likely that many recent migrants will return home, to enjoy their less productive later years—when they may cost the state more in terms of health care, for instance. They also argue that the youth of many recent arrivals means that they are at the beginning of their careers—and may be underemployed because of a lack of language skills, for example—so have not yet reached their full economic potential. The contributions of those who stay in Britain may well increase. It is a new form of foreign 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。

1 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

3 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。