经济学人: 技术移民逃离美国 奔向加拿大 (1)

 What would induce a software developer to quit a good job in Silicon¹ Valley and trade California's sunshine for Toronto's wintry skies? 什么可以吸引一名软件开发者放弃硅谷的好工作，用加利福尼亚的阳光换得多伦多的冷冬？

For Vikram Rangnekar, born in India and educated in America, 对于维克拉姆·兰格奈克这样在印度出生，在美国上学的人来说，

the triggers were the restrictions² placed on immigrant tech workers holding an H-1B visa (starting companies or taking long holidays is discouraged) 触动他的是针对持有H-1B签证（开公司或放长假是不允许的）的技术移民的限制

and what looked like a 20-year wait to get the green card he needed in order to settle down. 以及为了在美国定居，需要等上20年时间才能拿到绿卡。

Rising anti-immigrant sentiment under President Donald Trump's administration did not help. Two years later he thinks he made the right choice. 唐纳德·特朗普总统政府不断高涨的反移民情绪起不到帮助作用。两年后他认为他做出了正确选择。

"I didn't want to spend the best years of my life on a restrictive visa." “我不希望将自己最好的年华浪费在一个限制签证上。”

People like Mr Rangnekar are part of an exodus³ of tech workers from Silicon Valley. 有大批技术工作人员从硅谷离去，像兰格奈克这样的人只是其中一部分。

Pushed out by the cost of living as well as by a less welcoming American government, 受生活成本以及不那么受欢迎的美国政府的排挤，

they are being pulled in by countries such as Canada, where tech vacancies⁴ are forecast to reach 200,000 by 2020. 他们被加拿大等国家吸引，截止至2020年，这些国家的技术职位空缺预计将达到20万。

Canada is gambling⁵ that by the time America wakes up to the cost of discouraging immigrants its tech sector⁶ will have secured some of the best talent. 加拿大在赌，到美国从失望移民的损失中清醒时，加拿大的技术部门将已经争取到了一些最优秀的人才。

The starting-point is pretty promising⁷. 这个出发点有望成功。

Toronto already has expertise⁸ in artificial intelligence (AI) and an array of promising firms such as Wattpad, a storytelling platform with 65m readers. 多伦多已经有人工智能方面的专门技术以及大批有前景的公司，如Wattpad，一家拥有6500万读者的讲故事平台。

The city added more tech jobs in 2017 than the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle and Washington, DC, combined. 在2017年，这座城市新增技术职位的数量比旧金山湾、西雅图以及华盛顿特区加起来都多。

Ottawa is home to Shopify, a publicly traded e-commerce platform valued at C$19bn ($14bn). 渥太华是Shopify的总部所在地，这是一家从事电子贸易的上市公司，市值190亿加元（140亿美元）。

Montreal, another AI hotbed, has Element AI, a co-founded by Yoshua Bengio, a specialist in deep learning—and newish labs opened by Facebook and Samsung. 蒙特利尔是另一片AI温床，这里有研究实验室Element AI，深度学历领域专家Yoshua Bengio是其联合创始人—以及脸书和三星创办的新型实验室。

Yet Canada is in the third tier of destinations globally, says a study on venture-capital investment, 但加拿大排在全球目的地的第三层，风险资本投资研究

"The Rise of the Global Start-Up City", co-authored by Richard Florida, an urbanologist. 《The Rise of the Global Start-Up Cit》说如是，都市学家理查德·佛罗里达是该研究的联合作者。

To move up, the government has tweaked both its permanent and temporary immigrant programmes. 为了向上移动，政府调整了其永久和临时移民方案。

Applicants⁹ for permanent residence get extra points for tech skills. Temporary visa holders¹⁰ are told their spouses¹¹ will be allowed to work. 拥有技术技能的永久居住申请者可获得额外分数。临时签证的持有者被告知，他们的配偶可以来此工作。

 

1 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

2 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

3 exodus   

v.大批离去，成群外出

参考例句：

• The medical system is facing collapse because of an exodus of doctors.由于医生大批离去，医疗系统面临崩溃。
• Man's great challenge at this moment is to prevent his exodus from this planet.人在当前所遇到的最大挑战，就是要防止人从这个星球上消失。

4 vacancies   

n.空房间( vacancy的名词复数 )；空虚；空白；空缺

参考例句：

• job vacancies 职位空缺
• The sign outside the motel said \"No Vacancies\". 汽车旅馆外的招牌显示“客满”。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 gambling   

n.赌博；投机

参考例句：

• They have won a lot of money through gambling.他们赌博赢了很多钱。
• The men have been gambling away all night.那些人赌了整整一夜。

6 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

7 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

8 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

9 applicants   

申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were over 500 applicants for the job. 有500多人申请这份工作。
• He was impressed by the high calibre of applicants for the job. 求职人员出色的能力给他留下了深刻印象。

10 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。

11 spouses   

n.配偶，夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Jobs are available for spouses on campus and in the community. 校园里和社区里有配偶可做的工作。 来自辞典例句
• An astonishing number of spouses-most particularly in the upper-income brackets-have no close notion of their husbands'paychecks. 相当大一部分妇女——特别在高收入阶层——并不很了解他们丈夫的薪金。 来自辞典例句