When I was 8 years old, my father explained to me the secret to American prosperity.
我8岁时，父亲向我解释了美国繁荣的秘密。
Immigrants come to the United States and take menial jobs so that their children have a chance at a better future, he told me. While the jobs they take are below their intrinsic capabilities, they’re focused on giving their children a better life, not personal job satisfaction. Second-generation children, seeing how hard their parents work to give them an opportunity, in turn work hard at school, where, he noted, they often focus on mathematics and science in pursuit of the economic returns promised by careers in engineering and medicine. Third-generation kids figure the economic return on effort expended is better for business and legal professionals and pursue those professions instead of technical ones. By the fourth generation, any immigration-related incentives to work hard are largely nonexistent.
他告诉我，移民来到美国从事体力劳动，这样他们的子女能有机会拥有更美好的未来。虽然所从事的工作对他们的能力而言都是大材小用，他们看重的是给子女更好的生活，而不是个人工作满足。第二代子女目睹家长如何努力工作为他们创造机会，反过来也会在学校努力学习。父亲还说，这些孩子偏重数学和科学，还得到工程和医药行业的经济回报。第三代子女认为商业和律师职业得到的经济回报更多，因而追求这些行业，而非技术行业。到第四代，任何与移民努力工作的激励因素基本上荡然无存。
It was a gross generalization used to explain to a child the importance of immigration, but one that I have since found to be generally accurate.
这是给孩子解释移民重要性的一般方法，不过我发现整体而言非常准确。
On this 233rd celebration of U.S. Independence Day, in the midst of the worst economic recession in at least a lifetime, there is a national debate taking place as to the direction of the country. And while I’m confident that we will preserve our democracy and capitalism, I’m concerned about the tone and tenure of the discussion around immigration. Smart immigration policies will do more for American innovation and productivity than better math and science education, more spending on basic research and additional venture capital combined. If we get strategic about immigration, I believe the U.S. can preserve its economic leadership position in the world far longer than anyone currently expects.
在美国建国233年庆典上，在此生最低迷的经济衰退之中，全民都在就国家方向进行讨论。虽然我坚信我们会保留民主和资本主义，我对于移民讨论的论调和期限感到担忧。英明的移民政策会比更好的数学及科学教育、比在基本研究和额外的风险资本加在一起，能为美国带来更多创新和生产力。如果我们策略性地应对移民问题，我相信美国可以坚守全球经济领先地位，比任何人眼下期待得都要长久。
Why immigration is more important to innovation than broad-based science education
为什么在促进创新方面，移民比普及科学教育更重要
Shortly after President Obama was elected, The New York Times published an article by Ian Ayres in which he expressed support for appointing Larry Summers as Treasury Secretary. The article quotes Dr. Summers on his assumption that top physics researchers are 3-4 standard deviations above the mean in terms of I.Q. While I don’t have evidence to support his assumption, my intuition is that he’s right, including when he notes what a small group of people these great thinkers represent. Dr. Summers states:
在奥巴马当选总统之后不久，《纽约时报》刊登了Ian Ayres的一篇文章，文中表达了他对任命Larry Summers担任财政部长的支持。该文章引用了Summers博士的观点，即顶级物理研究者比一般人平均IQ高出3-4个标准。虽然我没有证据支持他的假设，但直觉告诉我，他是对的，他指出这些伟大的思想家代表的是多么小的一个群体，这也是对的。Summers博士说：
“If…one is talking about physicists at a top-25 research university, one is not talking about people who are two standard deviations above the mean. And perhaps it’s not even talking about somebody who is three standard deviations above the mean. But it’s talking about people who are three-and-a-half, [or] four standard deviations above the mean in the 1 in 5,000, [or] 1 in 10,000 class.”
“如果……某人谈论的是最佳25所研究型大学的物理学家，他说的不是比平均高出2个标准的人，可能说的也不是高出平均3个标准的人，而是高出平均3个半甚至4个标准的人，他们是5000分之一或10000分之一。”
If we assume that talent is evenly distributed throughout the planet, that the U.S. population is around 300 million, that the global population is 6.7 billion, and that 1/5,000 people are the top candidates to push U.S. innovation forward, that gives us a pool of 60,000 people in the U.S. and 1.28 million outside of it.
如果我们假设天才在全球均匀分布，美国人口大约为3亿，而全球人口为67亿，1/5000的人是推动美国创新的首要候选人，那么美国有6万这样的人，其余128万人都在美国之外。
Innovation will not be spurred solely by giving those 60,000 Americans access to math or science education, but by providing the right incentives for them to enter the scientific and technical professions. More importantly, we could radically increase the number of innovation candidates through targeted immigration of the 1.28 million people that hail from elsewhere.
单是为这六万美国人提供数学或科学教育机会并不会促进创新，不过给他们适当的激励进入科学和技术行业却可以。更重要的是，我们可以通过128万的目标移民迅速增加创新候选人的数量。
The government cannot mandate desire
政府无法强迫人心
If the first benefit of immigration is importing talent, the second is that of importing “hunger.” Many countries lack a way to identify and reward their brightest citizens, while that has been the allure of the U.S. since our inception. So I would argue further that the “innovation probability” of a high I.Q. individual whose family has been in the U.S. for many generations is less than that of someone who’s new to our nation and has a comparable intellect, but far more desire.
如果移民的第一好处是进口人才，第二优势则是进口“饥饿”。许多国家缺乏甄别奖励其最出色市民的方法，而那是美国建国之初就存在的吸引力。所以，我想进一步指出，在美国居住数代的高智商个体的“创新概率”比智力不相上下但愿望远为强烈的新人要少。
The time for a strategic approach to immigration is now
移民的战略性方法时机就在当下
Broad-based mathematics education will strengthen our nation by improving our workforce, but that is not best path to innovation. Basic research may create jobs and openings at universities to lay the foundation for innovation in certain areas, but the ROI on such investments is uncertain and sometimes misplaced. And the pool of available venture capital is not the constraining factor in new startups — lack of talent is.
普及的数学教育通过改善劳动大军来增强国力，但这并非创新的最佳途径。基本研究可以创造工作，可以创造大学就读机会，以为某些领域的创新奠定基础，但这些投资的回报率并不确定，有时甚至错位。可用风险资本的共享资源不是新创业公司的限制性因素——缺乏人才才是。
It’s time for a more strategic and aggressive immigration policy, one that targets the best and brightest around the globe and makes it easy for them to become permanent residents. We should be recruiting the world’s best talent the same way top companies recruit the best talent. Talk to anyone who’s tried to become a resident here lately and you’ll quickly realize the process is long and often highly random — in other words, very discouraging.
是时候出台更具策略性更积极的面对全球最优秀最聪明的人才的移民政策，让他们更容易变为永久居民。我们应该像顶级公司招聘英才那样招募全世界的最佳人才。跟任何想要成为居民的人聊天，你会很快就意识到这个过程相当漫长，而且通常很随机——换言之，让人心灰意冷。
Strategic immigration, together with our strong democracy, capitalistic system and melting-pot culture, will deliver a better standard of living for many generations of Americans to come. I am grateful to all of the immigrants in the U.S. on this Fourth of July. To them, I say thank you — for everything you do.
战略性移民，加上我们强大的民主、资本主义体系、熔炉文化，将为美国未来数代提供更好的标准生活。在这个7月4日，我向所有美国移民深表感谢。对我们，我要说，谢谢你——谢谢你所做的一切。
