美國簽證收緊"得不償失"大綱

Visa halt no good for jobs

美國簽證收緊“得不償失”

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.

爲了鼓勵企業僱傭更多美國勞動者，特朗普總統一直在不斷收緊外籍技術勞工簽證，包括在六月暫停臨時工作簽證。

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.

但是一項新研究發現，把技術勞工擋在國門外事實上會鼓勵公司把職位遷至海外，在那裏他們可以在當地招工或者更容易獲得簽證。

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

這意味着在加拿大、印度、中國等國家會產生更多新職位，而不像特朗普總統聲稱的那樣會給美國增加就業機會。

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.

該研究報告的作者、美國國家經濟研究局的經濟學家布麗塔·格倫農稱，通過阻止外來移民，美國錯失了其他福利，比如新專利、更多的外國投資和高技能領域的新職位。

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".

研究還顯示，相比美國人，移民在美國創業的可能性要大得多——財富500強的公司中近半是由移民或移民後代創辦的——移民往往是“就業創造者”而不是“求職者”。

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

格倫農說，幫助美國人就業的更好政策應該是對教育加大投入。

"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."

她說：“確保美國人有充分的技能，這個方法相比阻止其他國家的技術勞工進入要合理得多。外籍勞工被僱傭的原因是企業找不到能勝任這些工作的美國人。”