The continuing arrival of immigrants to American shores is encouraging business activity and producing more jobs, according to a new study.
根據一分最新公布的研究報告，各國移民不斷抵達美國，促進了美國的商業活動，並且創造了更多就業機會。

Its authors argue that the easier it is to find cheap immigrant labor at home, the less likely that production will relocate offshore.
報告的作者指出，美國越是容易找到工資低廉的外來勞力，本土產業的生產線就越不可能移往海外。

The study, “Immigration, Offshoring and American Jobs,” was written by two economics professors – Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano of Bocconi University in Italy and Giovanni Peri of the University of California, Davis – along with Greg C. Wright, a Ph.D. candidate at Davis.
這項報告以《移民、產業外移與美國的就業機會》為題，作者是兩位經濟學教授，分別是義大利博可尼大學的奧塔維亞諾與戴維斯加州大學的裴里。另外還有戴維斯加大博士候選人萊特。

The study notes that when companies move production offshore, they pull away not only low-wage jobs but also many related jobs, which can include high-skilled managers, tech repairmen and others. But hiring immigrants even for low-wage jobs helps keep many kinds of jobs in the United States, the authors say. In fact, when immigration is rising as a share of employment in an economic sector, offshoring tends to be falling, and vice versa, the study found.
報告指出，一旦企業將生產線移到海外，帶走的不只是低薪的工作，許多相關的工作也會一併出走，可能包括高技能經理人員、維修技師等等。然而作者指出，即使只是雇用移民從事低薪工作，也能幫助美國留住多種就業機會。報告發現，事實上，如果某一經濟區塊就業人口中移民所占百分比持續增加，該區塊企業轉移海外的比例往往就會降低。反之亦然。

American economic sectors with much exposure to immigration fared better in employment than more insulated sectors, even for low-skilled labor, the authors found. It’s hard to prove cause and effect in these studies, or to measure all relevant variables precisely, but at the very least, the evidence in this study doesn’t offer much support for the popular bias against immigration, and globalization.
作者指出，與移民有高度接觸的經濟區塊，在就業方面的表現優於比較封閉的經濟區塊，即使對低階技能的勞工亦然。我們很難證明這些結論的因果關係，也無法準確衡量所有相關變數。不過最起碼，這項研究報告提供的證據並不怎麼支持一般人對移民與全球化問題的偏見。

As other papers by Professor Peri have shown, low-skilled immigrants usually fill gaps in American labor markets and generally enhance domestic business prospects rather than destroy jobs; this occurs because of an important phenomenon, the presence of what are known as “complementary” workers, namely those who add value to the work of others. An immigrant will often take a job as a construction worker, a drywall installer or a taxi driver, for example, while a native-born worker may end up being promoted to supervisor. And as immigrants succeed here, they help the United States develop strong business and social networks with the rest of the world, making it easier for us to do business with India, Brazil and most other countries.
誠如裴里發表的其他研究報告所顯示，僅擁有低階技能的移民通常會填補美國勞動市場的空缺，而且可以促進美國國內的商業景氣，而非如一般所說的搶走就業機會。這是因為一種相當重要的現象所致──所謂的「補實」勞工，也就是為他人從事的工作創造附加價值的一群人。例如，一個移民通常會擔任建築工人、石膏乾牆板安裝工或計程車司機，本土勞工則可能因而升級為督導人員。此外，如果移民事業順利，他們也能協助美國與世界其他地區建立堅實的商業及社交網絡，使我們更容易與印度、巴西及大多數其他國家做生意。

We’re all worried about unemployment, but the problem is usually rooted in macroeconomic conditions, not in immigration or offshoring. (According to a Pew study, the number of illegal immigrants from the Caribbean and Latin America fell 22 percent from 2007 to 2009; their departure has not had much effect on the weak United States job market.) Remember, too, that each immigrant consumes products sold here, therefore also helping to create jobs.
我們都擔心失業的問題，然而這個問題通常源於宏觀經濟條件，與移民或產業外移無關。（根據丕優研究中心公布的一項報告，2007年至2009年之間，來自加勒比海與拉丁美洲的非法移民累計減少了22%。他們離境並未對疲弱的美國就業市場產生明顯的影響）同樣的我們也別忘了，每一個移民都會消費在美國市面上銷售的各種產品，進而有助於創造就業機會。

When it comes to immigration, positive-sum thinking is too often absent in public discourse these days. Debates on immigration and labor markets reflect some common human cognitive failings – namely, that we are quicker to vilify groups of different “others” than we are to blame impersonal forces.
最近的公眾討論每當觸及移民問題時，常常欠缺正面思考。有關移民與勞動市場的辯論往往反映一些常見的人類認知盲點。也就是說，我們只忙著把問題歸咎於非我族類的「其他人」，卻不願探討各種客觀因素。

Consider the fears that foreign competition, offshoring and immigration have destroyed large numbers of American jobs. In reality, more workers have probably been displaced by machines – as happens every time computer software eliminates a task formerly performed by a clerical worker. Yet we know that machines and computers do the economy far more good than harm and that they create more jobs than they destroy.
且以對外國競爭、產業外移及移民搶走大量美國就業機會的恐懼為例。事實上，工作機會被機器取代的勞工可能更多，每當最新款電腦軟體推出時，總會有一些庶務性勞工飯碗不保，就是明證。然而我們也都知道，機器與電腦對經濟產生的好處大於傷害，創造的就業機會比消滅的多。

Nonetheless, we find it hard to transfer this attitude to our dealings with immigrants, no matter how logically similar “cost-saving machines” and “cost-saving foreign labor” may be in their economic effects. Similarly, tariffs or other protectionist measures aimed at foreign nations have a certain populist appeal, even though their economic effects may be roughly the same as those caused by a natural disaster that closes shipping lanes or chokes off a domestic harbor.
話雖如此，無論「節省成本的機器」和「節省成本的勞力」產生經濟效益的邏輯有多類似，我們在面對移民時還是很難採取相同的態度。同樣的，針對其他國家祭出關稅或其他保護性措施，哪怕對經濟的影響不下於使一條海上航線關閉或一處國內港口陷入癱瘓的天災，卻依然具有一定程度的民粹號召力。

Americans spend far too much time and energy worrying about foreigners. We also end up with more combative international relations with our economic partners, than reason can justify. In turn, they are more economically suspicious of us than they ought to be.
美國人花在提防外國人上頭的時間與精神多到離譜，我們與經濟夥伴國家之間的關係也因而緊繃到超乎理性的地步。如此一來，在經濟層次上，我們的夥伴國家對我們也多了一分沒有必要的猜忌。

The current skepticism has deadlocked prospects for immigration reform, even though no one is particularly happy with the status quo. Against that trend, we should be looking to immigration as a creative force in our economic favor. Allowing in more immigrants, skilled and unskilled, wouldn’t just create jobs. It could increase tax revenue, help finance Social Security, bring new home buyers and improve the business environment.
沒有人對移民問題的現狀感到特別滿意，然而當前的懷疑心態已經使移民改革陷於停頓。我們應該反其道而行，將移民視為對美國經濟有利的創造性力量。接納更多移民，不管他們有沒有工作技能，如此不只可以創造就業機會，還可以增加稅收，充實社會福利制度的財源，帶來新的購屋者，同時改善企業的經營環境。

The world economy will most likely grow more open, and we should be prepared to compete. That means recognizing the benefits – including the employment benefits – that immigrants bring to America.
全球經濟幾乎必然會更趨開放，我們應該做好競爭的準備。這意味認清移民對美國帶來的各種好處，包括使就業機會增加。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/business/economy/31view.html

2010-11-16/聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽 原文請見紐時週報八版上