2014年经济学人 移民与经济 移民如何助力

Immigration and the economy

How migrants help

And how Obama's order doesn't

IMMIGRATION is the quintessential supply-side policy. It expands the labour force, encourages investment and provides taxpayers¹ to supportAmerica's growing ranks of the grey-haired. Sadly, Barack Obama's immigration order will have few such benefits, because it is aimed largely at illegal immigrants who arrived years ago while doing precious little to increase the flow of newcomers.

The reform that passed the Senate last year (but was never taken up by the House of Representatives), besides legalising millions of illegal immigrants, would have created new entry routes for foreign workers, especially those with skills, experience and education. The Congressional Budget Office reckoned it would boost the population in a decade's time by10m, the number of workers by6m, and the level of GDP by 3.3%.

By contrast, Mr Obama's Council of Economic Advisers² reckons his order will boost GDP in the next decade by between 0.4% and 0.9%, mostly because of provisions unrelated to illegal immigration. These give foreign entrepreneurs more ways to get into America, allow the spouses³ of skilled visa-holders to work, and let foreign-born science graduates spend more time in America doing their training.

In theory, the economy should benefit as illegal immigrants, no longer fearing they will be deported⁴, switch to jobs better suited to their skills. But that advantage is likely to be small: a study by Silvia Helena Barcellos, now at the University of Southern California, found that Mexican high-school dropouts who qualified⁵ for the 1986 amnesty earned only 2-3% more than those who did not qualify, and that there was little difference in where they worked or the types of jobs they had, though their better-educated counterparts got better jobs.

Immigration is already shrinking as a contributor to American growth. Legal immigration has been around1ma year for the past decade, and is edging down as a share of the population (see chart). Illegal immigration more or less came to a halt in 2007. Since then, the number of illegal immigrants freshly arrived in the country has been roughly balanced, or exceeded, by the number who have left, died or been deported. The longer Congress goes without legislating⁶ a change, the costlier⁷ it will be for the economy.

1 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

2 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

3 spouses   

n.配偶，夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Jobs are available for spouses on campus and in the community. 校园里和社区里有配偶可做的工作。 来自辞典例句
• An astonishing number of spouses-most particularly in the upper-income brackets-have no close notion of their husbands'paychecks. 相当大一部分妇女——特别在高收入阶层——并不很了解他们丈夫的薪金。 来自辞典例句

4 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

6 legislating   

v.立法，制定法律( legislate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Why are the senators sitting there without legislating? 为什么那些议员们做在那里不立法？ 来自互联网
• From legislating and protecting peasant's interests organizationally. " 从立法和组织上保护农民利益。 来自互联网

7 costlier   

adj.昂贵的( costly的比较级 )；代价高的；引起困难的；造成损失的

参考例句：

• Alligator skin is five times more costlier than leather. 鳄鱼皮比通常的皮革要贵5倍。 来自互联网
• Disagreements among creditors can be costlier still. 债权人之间的分歧会加大重组的费用。 来自互联网