双语：越来越多留学生选择回国工作

　　Recently, I had lunch with a young Chinese student who studies at a college in New York. He is very bright and aspiring and I enjoyed our conversation. Still I felt frustrated and useless afterwards because I was not able to provide him with any good news on a question that had been bugging him lately. Graduating at the end of this year, he asked me how he could find a job in this country and fulfill his career dreams.

　　最近，我和一位年轻的中国学生在纽约的一所大学里吃午饭。他很聪明，很有抱负，我们一起相谈甚欢。但聊天之后我依然感到些许失落，感觉自己没用，因为当他和我诉说最近困扰他的问题时，我无法向他提供任何好消息。他问我，在年底毕业后怎么能在这个国家找一份工作，圆他事业上的梦想。

　　In recent years, international students who found a job here after graduation have had to go through a cruel lottery system to obtain their H1B working visa. And the success rates have been declining year after year because of the ever growing number of applicants. Last year, there were 233,000 applicants, and only 30 percent of them were lucky, less than half of the rate in 2013.

　　最近几年，毕业后在这里找到工作的留学生要拿到H1B工作签证是件很困难而且碰运气的事。因为申请数量的增长，出签成功率也在逐年下降。去年共有23.3万份签证申请，但其中只有30%成为了幸运儿，这一比率不及2013年的一半。

　　And it can only become worse. US President Donald Trump’s executive order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US may have been halted by the courts temporarily, but the squaring off between the administration and the judiciary won’t change the overall policy direction - immigration policies in this country are tightening up and this trend will continue for at least the next few years.

　　而且情况只会越来越糟。美国总统特朗普针对七个穆斯林国家的“禁穆令”暂时被法院暂停，但是行政部和司法部不会改变基本政策的走向 - 美国本土的移民政策正在不断收紧，而且这样的趋势将持续数年。

　　The US Congress is already reviewing a bill that requires a $100,000 minimum annual salary threshold for H1B applicants. And Trump has indicated he will probably support the legislation. It is a figure that is very difficult for a young graduate to attain in their first job and a struggle for many with master’s degrees. In this case, foreign students studying social sciences, a field in which starting salaries are rarely above the required amount, can kiss their visa hopes goodbye.

　　美国国会已经在修订申请H1B签证的要求，欲将年薪十万美金作为最低门槛。同时特朗普表示他会支持此政策。这意味着年轻的毕业生们将很难找到第一份工作，对许多研究生来说达到这一水平都很困难。在这种情况下，一些学人文社科的留学生就基本无缘签证了，因为这一领域的起薪几乎不可能达到要求。

　　But, while I am sorry for my young friend, whose major in journalism is not likely to be considered as meeting a critical need in Trump’s America, I know that for Chinese students in the US, the tighter visa policy will be much less devastating than 10 years ago.

　　我很对那位年轻朋友抱憾，新闻专业的他不大可能达到特朗普时期美国对留学生们的尖锐要求。但是我明白，相比十年前，更为收紧的签证政策对在美中国留学生来说不会是个毁灭性的打击。

　　Compared to the older generation of Chinese students who would kill to stay in the US after graduation, today’s young people no longer consider the US as the only option. Many start to think China offers better opportunities in the longer term. According to China’s Ministry of Education, there were 523,700 Chinese students who went to study in foreign countries in 2015, and 409,100 overseas Chinese students returned after graduation. The out/in ratio was 1.28:1 compared to 2.15:1 a decade ago.

　　老一代的中国学生在毕业后会绞尽脑汁不惜一切留在美国，相比之下现如今的年轻人仅仅会把留美作为众多选项之一。许多学生开始觉得在中国会有更好的长期工作的机会。根据中国教育部数据显示，2015年时海外的中国留学生有52.37万人，其中40.19万人在毕业后选择回国，留学人数与回国人数比为1.28:1，十年前这一比率为2.15:1。

　　Prospective Chinese employers have been quick to detect the change. In the past two years, an increasing number of Chinese companies have launched campus recruitment tours at US universities.

　　未来的中国老板们将会很快察觉到这一变化。在过去两年里，在美国高校进行巡回招募的国企数量不断上升。

　　The students I met at the job fair all told me that the potential for growth a job offers is the most important criteria on which they will make a decision. Whether the job is based in Beijing or New York is not as important.

　　我在招聘会上遇见的学生们告诉我工作机会不断增加的潜在趋势将是他们未来作决定的一个重要因素，至于工作在北京还是纽约并不那么重要。

　　This is not to say that Chinese students in the US are not interested in job opportunities here any more. A few years of work experience in the US can give them better leverage when they finally land back in their home country. So far there are 328,547 Chinese students studying in the US, making China the number one source for international students here. But if the job opportunities are largely reduced by the tightening of immigration policy, I expect there will be a decline. And if that happens, it is the American economy that will suffer from the loss of those educated, hard-working and talented immigrants.

　　并不是说赴美的中国学生对那边的工作机会不再感兴趣。最终回国后，在美国短暂几年的工作经验会为他们个人增色不少。直到现在美国大约有328,547名中国留学生，使得中国成为输送留学生生源最多的国家。但是如果工作机会因为不断收紧的移民政策而被削减，我觉得这一数字将会下降。如果真是这样的话，美国经济将会因为数量下降的知识分子、勤勉工作并且优秀的移民而受到打击。