Britain has many levers for controlling migration. Which ones should it pull?
Not the one marked "reduce the government wage bill"
levers：美 ['levəz] 操作杆；杠杆；（lever的复数）
原文：
Labour won power on July 4th after declaring that Britain had too much
immigration, and pledging to cut it. The new government promptly ran into
the problem that has floored its predecessors. Whatever they may say,
ministers have little control over the number of asylum-seekers reaching the
country. Those migrants, who are often resented---witness the attacks on
hotels used to house them during a wave of racist riots in early August---are
driven mostly by wars and geopolitical forces. Nor does the government
have much say over the number of arriving Hong Kongers and Ukrainians,
to whom it gives special visas.
7月4日，工党宣布英国有太多的移民，并承诺减少移民后赢得了政权。新政府很快就遇到了困扰其前任的问题。不管部长们怎么说，他们对抵达该国的寻求庇护者的数量几乎没有控制力。这些移民经常遭到憎恨------见证了在8月初的种族主义骚乱浪潮中对他们居住的酒店的袭击------主要是由战争和地缘政治力量驱动的。对于抵达的香港人和乌克兰人的数量，政府也没有太多发言权，政府会给他们发放特殊签证。
学习：
promptly：迅速地；立即地；
floor：击倒；使困惑；困扰
resented：愤恨；厌恶；怨恨；对...感到愤怒；（resent的过去式）
原文：
But it does wield great power over the workers, students and dependants
who make up the bulk of immigrants. Indeed, it has more power over them
than it used to. When the previous Labour government left office, in 2010,
almost one in three long-term immigrants arrived under EU freedom-of-
movement rules. Nothing could be done to prevent Bulgarians and
Romanians from gaining full access to the labour market four years later,
which pushed the numbers even higher.
但它确实对构成移民主体的工人、学生和家属有很大的影响力。事实上，它对他们的影响力比过去更大了。当前工党政府在2010年离任时，几乎三分之一的长期移民是根据欧盟自由流动规则抵达的。无法阻止保加利亚人和罗马尼亚人在四年后完全进入劳动力市场，这使得数字更高。
学习：
wield：挥舞；挥；操；掌握；运用；行使（权力或影响力）
the bulk of：大部分；大多数；大头
原文：
Now that Britain has left the EU, freedom of movement is no more. And the
new government has inherited other controls over immigration that it lacked
in 2010. Family migration is now subject to a salary threshold, which
Labour seems minded to keep. The outgoing Conservative government tried
banning some immigrant workers from bringing dependants. It tightened,
then liberalised policies towards graduates. Labour has many levers to pull,
and some idea of what the effect will be.
如今，英国已经脱离欧盟，迁徙自由不复存在。新政府继承了2010年缺乏的其他移民控制措施。如今，家庭移民受到薪资门槛的限制，而工党似乎有意维持这一限制。即将离任的保守党政府试图禁止一些移民工人携带家属。先是收紧，然后放开了对毕业生的政策。工党有很多手段可以利用，并且知道会有什么样的效果。
学习：
outgoing：即将离职的；即将离任的；
Given all this power, what should the government do? Immigration is a
boon, at least at first: the Office for Budget Responsibility, the fiscal
watchdog, estimated in March that higher-than-expected net migration
would cut net borrowing by £7.4bn ($9.5bn, or 0.3% of GDP) in four years'
time, thanks to the migrants' taxes. But Britons are growing more
concerned, perhaps because net migration reached a near-record 685,000 last
year (see chart 1). With the Conservative and Reform UK parties likely to
bang on about immigration, Labour will probably want to demonstrate
control, even stinginess.
有了这些权力，政府应该做些什么呢？移民是一件好事，至少在一开始是这样:财政监督机构预算责任办公室(Office for Budget Responsibility)在3月份估计，由于移民税，高于预期的净移民将在四年内使净借款减少74亿英镑(95亿美元，或GDP的0.3%)。但是英国人越来越担心，也许是因为去年净移民达到了接近创纪录的685，000人(见图表1)。由于英国保守党和改革党可能会在移民问题上喋喋不休，工党可能会想要展示控制力，甚至是吝啬。
学习：
boon：恩惠；恩泽；恩赐；益处；好事
bang on about：喋喋不休地谈论；反复唠叨；不停地说
原文：
Britain has largely avoided two policies that other rich countries have tried:
guest-worker programmes and points-based immigration systems, which let
people in if they are young and highly qualified, even if they do not have a
job. It would be wise to stay clear of both. Guest workers have a distressing
tendency to become permanent, and do not integrate well; that kind of
migration is better suited to insular autocracies like Saudi Arabia. Madeleine
Sumption of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University says that
points-based systems in countries like Australia leave many immigrants
unemployed to begin with. They catch up later.
英国在很大程度上避免了其他富裕国家尝试过的两项政策:外来工人计划和基于积分的移民制度，这两项政策允许年轻且高度合格的人进入，即使他们没有工作。明智的做法是远离这两者。客籍工人有一种令人苦恼的趋势，即成为永久性的，并且不能很好地融入社会；这种迁移更适合像沙特阿拉伯这样的封闭专制国家。牛津大学移民观察站的Madeleine Sumption说，像澳大利亚这样的国家的基于分数的系统一开始就让许多移民失业。他们后来赶上了。
学习：
insular： 美 [ˈɪnsələr] 孤立的；保守的；
points-based system：基于积分的系统
原文：
Although British ministers have often claimed to be enacting an Australian
style points system, the government actually relies on companies and
universities to screen immigrants. It sets minimum salary thresholds for
workers. If you can find a firm that will pay you £38,700 ($49,300) a year,
or the going rate for a job if it is higher, then you are in, together with your
dependants. The threshold is lower for young people and workers in some
occupations.
尽管英国部长们经常声称要制定澳大利亚式的积分系统，但政府实际上依靠公司和大学来筛选移民。它为工人设定了最低工资标准。如果你能找到一家年薪3.87万英镑(合4.93万美元)的公司，或者一份工作的现行工资更高，那么你就和你的家属一起加入了。在某些职业中，年轻人和工人的门槛较低。
学习：
screen：筛选
原文：
In theory, a salary threshold is a powerful tool for controlling immigration,
although Britain's experience has been mixed. In April the threshold was
raised from £26,200. That has not obviously affected the number of visa
applications, which stood at 11,800 in July, slightly higher than a year
earlier. Jonathan Portes, an economist at King's College London, suggests
that many firms were already paying more than the minimum, and that the
increase is less steep than it seems because the fixed costs of hiring a
foreigner (in the form of fees and bureaucracy) are so high. To cut the
numbers, the government could push the threshold up again.
理论上，工资门槛是控制移民的有力工具，尽管英国的经验喜忧参半。今年4月，门槛从26200英镑上调。这并没有明显影响签证申请数量，7月份签证申请数量为1.18万份，略高于一年前。伦敦大学国王学院的经济学家Jonathan Portes认为，许多公司已经支付了高于最低标准的工资，而且增长并没有看起来那么快，因为雇佣一个外国人的固定成本(以费用和官僚主义的形式)非常高。为了减少这些数字，政府可以再次提高门槛。
原文：
A simpler, better option would be to apply the salary threshold to more jobs.
The British government has carved out many exceptions, especially for
immigrants who are ultimately paid by the government itself. Last year
almost 350,000 work visas, three-quarters of the total, went to health and
care workers. They can be paid as little as £23,200 a year, or £11.90 an hour.
The industry loves them. Geoff Butcher of Blackadder Corporation, which
runs care homes, says that foreign recruits work hard and are less likely to
quit than natives, although some struggle with ABBA and Rolling Stones
singalongs.
一个更简单、更好的选择是将薪资门槛应用于更多的工作。英国政府开辟了许多例外，尤其是那些最终由政府自己支付的移民。去年，将近350，000份工作签证，占总数的四分之三，发给了医疗和护理人员。他们的年薪可以低至2.32万英镑，或每小时11.9英镑。行业喜欢他们。经营养老院的黑爵士公司的杰夫·布彻说，外国雇员工作努力，比本地人更不容易辞职，尽管有些人很难跟上ABBA和滚石乐队的演唱。
学习：
care homes：养老院
recruit：新兵；新成员；新学生；（recruit的复数）
singalong： 合唱活动；集体唱歌
原文：
Polls for British Future, a think-tank, show that immigrant care workers and
nurses are popular---far more so than immigrant bankers, probably because
care workers and nurses are more popular than bankers. But exempting them
from the salary threshold seems dubious. A lax visa regime may be propping
up an industry with appalling pay. According to Skills for Care, which
oversees the care workforce, an employee with five years' experience is paid
just six pence more per hour than an employee with less than one year's
experience. And immigrant care workers can move on to other jobs in time.
Some might---horrors!---go into finance.
智库英国未来的民意调查显示，移民护工和护士很受欢迎------远远超过移民银行家，可能是因为护工和护士比银行家更受欢迎。但是免除他们的工资门槛似乎是可疑的。宽松的签证制度可能会支撑起一个薪酬惊人的行业。据监管护理劳动力的Skills for Care称，拥有五年工作经验的员工每小时工资仅比拥有不到一年工作经验的员工多6便士。移民护工可以及时转移到其他工作岗位。有些可能------太可怕了！---进入金融领域。
学习：
dubious：美 [ˈduːbiəs] 怀疑的；可疑的；不确定的；不可靠的；靠不住的
exempting：美 [iɡˈzemptɪŋ] 免除；豁免；（exempt的现在分词形式）
appalling：令人震惊的；
原文：
Alarmed by the number of low-paid workers who were taking advantage of
the loophole that it had created, in March the Tory government barred
immigrant care workers (although not NHS workers) from bringing their
dependants. That may have helped cut the numbers: in July just 2,900 people
applied for health and care visas for themselves, down from more than
16,000 a year earlier (see chart 2). Bans on dependants are a bad idea all the
same, if they break up families rather than selecting for single people.
受到大量低薪工人钻了这个空子的警告，保守党政府在三月份禁止移民护工(尽管不是NHS工人)带家属。这可能有助于减少人数:7月份只有2900人申请健康和护理签证，低于一年前的16000多人(见图表2)。如果他们拆散家庭而不是为单身人士选择，那么禁止家属仍然是一个坏主意。
学习：
loophole：漏洞；空子
原文：
Studies of immigrants and military families have repeatedly proved what
should probably not need proving: that children suffer when separated from
their parents. One study of migrants in Spain found an effect on their mental
well-being that is similar to the effect of divorce among natives. The fact
that some of the harm is invisible at first, because immigrants' children are
not in Britain, does not mean it can be ignored. Besides, after five years a
care worker acquires more rights. She could switch professions and apply to
bring her family over.
对移民和军人家庭的研究已经反复证明了或许不需要证明的事情:孩子在与父母分离时会遭受痛苦。一项对西班牙移民的研究发现，离婚对他们心理健康的影响与当地人的影响相似。由于移民的孩子不在英国，一些伤害起初是看不见的，但这并不意味着它可以被忽视。此外，五年后，护工将获得更多权利。她可以换个职业，申请把家人带过来。
学习：
switch professions：换职业
原文：
The Conservative-led governments that ran Britain between 2010 and 2024
tried more drastic experiments on foreign students. At first they clamped
down, removing people's right to work after graduating, as part of a doomed
attempt to reduce annual net migration to the tens of thousands. Then they
relaxed the rules. The number of enrolled international students jumped
from 496,000 in the 2018-19 academic year (just before the more liberal
policy was announced) to 759,000 in 2022-23. China, India and Nigeria sent
the most.
2010年至2024年间，保守党领导的政府在外国学生身上进行了更激烈的实验。起初，他们压制、剥夺人们毕业后工作的权利，作为注定要将每年净移民减少到数万人的努力的一部分。然后他们放松了规定。注册的国际学生人数从2018-19学年的49.6万人(就在更自由的政策宣布之前)跃升至2022-23学年的75.9万人。中国、印度和尼日利亚申请的最多。
原文：
The graduate visa scheme may be controversial, but it works effectively.
Foreign students provide a valuable export and prop up the higher-education
system: British universities ranked in the top 100 globally get 69% of their
fees from them. And foreign graduates who choose to stay and work in
Britain tend to take professional jobs. An evaluation by the Migration
Advisory Committee, which counsels the government, finds that by the end
of the first year of employment they earn almost as much as British
graduates.
研究生签证计划可能会有争议，但它是有效的。外国学生提供了一个有价值的出口，支撑了高等教育系统:全球排名前100的英国大学69%的费用来自他们。选择留在英国工作的外国毕业生倾向于从事专业工作。向政府提供建议的移民咨询委员会的评估发现，在就业的第一年结束时，他们的收入几乎和英国毕业生一样多。
学习：
prop up：支撑, 撑起, 扶持
原文：
Graduate visas do, however, lay bare some of the problems that exist
elsewhere in the immigration system. A foreign graduate who wants to stay
in Britain has only two or three years in which to find a job that pays more
than the salary threshold. The higher the threshold rises, the harder that
becomes. About one-fifth solve the problem by going to work in the care
system. If architects and engineers are doing that, it seems like a poor
outcome. Hence the argument for a lower threshold with fewer exceptions.
然而，研究生签证确实暴露了移民系统中其他地方存在的一些问题。一个想留在英国的外国毕业生只有两三年的时间去找一份薪水高于起征点的工作。门槛越高，这就变得越难。大约五分之一的人通过去护理系统工作来解决问题。如果建筑师和工程师都这样做，结果似乎很糟糕。因此，有理由降低门槛，减少例外。
学习：
lay bare：揭露；道破；暴露
原文：
It is worth remembering, though, that immigrants as a whole fare pretty
well. A forthcoming research paper for the Migration Observatory finds that
migrants from outside Europe who started working in 2021 earned 97% of
the median British wage in the second year and 104% in the third year.
Changes to the immigration rules could improve the system. It already
works well. ■
然而，值得记住的是，移民作为一个整体过得很好。一份即将为移民观察站发布的研究论文发现，从2021年开始工作的欧洲以外的移民在第二年的收入是英国工资中位数的97%，第三年是104%。移民法规的改变可能会改善这个系统。它已经运行良好。■
学习：
fare：进展；进行；表现；遭遇；经历；
后记
2024年8月22日15点23分于上海。