評論
打印
Immigration
移民
What have the immigrants ever done for us?
移民政策為我們做了些什么？
Rather a lot, according to a new piece of research
根據一項新的研究得出，移民政策做了挺多貢獻的
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 economists tells a very different tale.
討厭的移民者們。他們搬到英國，獲得工作，討要福利，占用衛生服務，擠爆當地學校并且占領保障性住房。至少這是英國獨立黨和越來越多的保守黨成員所講述的故事。然而兩位經濟學家的一項新研究卻得出了一個完全不同的理論。
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 Christian Dustmann of University College London and Tommaso Frattini of the University of Milan focuses on the second.
對移民帶來的經濟影響的關注主要集中在兩個方面：一是外國人對當地工人工資和就業率的影響；二是移民們從這樣的移民體制中所獲益處，尤其是來自歐盟成員國的移民，因為他們可以隨意活動，但對所在的移民體系貢獻少之又少。由倫敦大學學院的克里斯蒂安·達斯特曼和米蘭大學的托馬索·弗拉提尼共同合作的調查研究主要就集中于第二點。
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 fiscal 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.
通過計算歐洲移民在政府支出所占份額和他們對政府收益所作的貢獻，學者們估計在1995年和2011年間，相較于英國本國人所做的5910億英鎊的負面貢獻，移民對英國做出了至少40億英鎊（約合64億美元）的正面貢獻。在2001至2011年間，從自2004年加入歐盟的東歐國家來的新移民所做的凈財政貢獻總計50億英鎊。即便是在金融危機最糟糕的2007至2011那幾年，他們對英國公共財政的凈財政貢獻也有將近20億英鎊。從歐洲其它國家來的移民所作貢獻零零散散也有86億英鎊。
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.
兩位作者指出一些政府服務的支出—尤其是例如國防支出等“純公共”項目—與服務人數毫無關系，因此總體而言，政府在移民身上的此類開銷為零。如果要計算英國人均公共服務消費情況，因為移民的加入，這個數值應該還更低，因為分攤的人頭數更大。
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.
總體來產生了積極的影響，有一部分原因是他們比起當地人，不太可能討得福利或住到公益住房。1998至2011年間有高達37%的當地人得到了一些國家福利和稅收抵免政策；歐洲移民得到的福利還不到當地人的8個百分點。這些移民所住的公益住房也不到英國人的3個百分點。
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.
達斯特曼和法拉提尼承認移民的好處或許也與移民者趨于年輕化有關。但是，他們指出，似乎最近很多移民都將回到家鄉，其中一個原因是他們年老時即使掙得少了，也可以獲得更好的衛生保健福利保證晚年幸福。這兩位作者還提到新移民中年輕人的到來意味著他們的事業才剛剛開始—比如有的因為語言不通還沒有就業—那么他們還沒有到完全發揮他們經濟潛力的時候。留在英國的移民所做的貢獻可能會持續增加。這是一種新形式的外國直接投資。譯者：邵夏沁 校對：胡雅琳 徐珍
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