美国签证收紧"得不偿失"

Visa halt no good for jobs

美国签证收紧“得不偿失”

US President Donald Trump has been trying to encourage firms to hire more American workers by increasing restrictions on visas for skilled foreign workers, including by suspending the H-1B visa program in June.

为了鼓励企业雇佣更多美国劳动者，特朗普总统一直在不断收紧外籍技术劳工签证，包括在六月暂停临时工作签证。

But a new study found that blocking out skilled labor actually encourages companies to move jobs abroad, where they can hire locally or more easily obtain a visa.

但是一项新研究发现，把技术劳工挡在国门外事实上会鼓励公司把职位迁至海外，在那里他们可以在当地招工或者更容易获得签证。

That means more new jobs in countries like Canada, India and China, not in the US, as President Donald Trump has claimed.

这意味着在加拿大、印度、中国等国家会产生更多新职位，而不像特朗普总统声称的那样会给美国增加就业机会。

By blocking immigration, the US misses out on other benefits, like new patents, additional foreign investment and new jobs in highly-skilled fields, said Britta Glennon, the National Bureau of Economic Research economist who wrote the study.

该研究报告的作者、美国国家经济研究局的经济学家布丽塔·格伦农称，通过阻止外来移民，美国错失了其他福利，比如新专利、更多的外国投资和高技能领域的新职位。

Research has also shown immigrants are much more likely to start new companies compared to Americans - nearly half of Fortune 500 firms were founded by an immigrant or a child of one - and are more often "job creators" than "job takers".

研究还显示，相比美国人，移民在美国创业的可能性要大得多——财富500强的公司中近半是由移民或移民后代创办的——移民往往是“就业创造者”而不是“求职者”。

Glennon said a better policy to help Americans get jobs would be through additional investments in education.

格伦农说，帮助美国人就业的更好政策应该是对教育加大投入。

"Make sure that Americans have the right set of skills," she said. "It's a much more sensible way to go about this than trying to block skilled workers from other countries. The reason why they're getting hired is because companies can't find Americans to do those jobs."

她说：“确保美国人有充分的技能，这个方法相比阻止其他国家的技术劳工进入要合理得多。外籍劳工被雇佣的原因是企业找不到能胜任这些工作的美国人。”