美国或因绿卡政策摇摆流失人才

WASHINGTON — For years, United States policy makers have been debating the idea of granting green cards to foreigners with science doctorates. The cell biologist Xiao-Wei Chen, at the University of Michigan, is no longer waiting for them to decide.

华盛顿——多年来，美国的决策者一直在讨论是否给拥有理工科博士学位的外国人直接发放绿卡的问题。密歇根大学(University of Michigan)的细胞生物学家陈晓伟（音译）已不再等待他们做出决定。

Mr. Chen, whose work on cholesterol metabolism helped him win a job competition this year at the National Institutes of Health, is instead making plans to return home to China and his undergraduate institution, Peking University.

今年，陈晓伟凭借在胆固醇代谢方面的研究在竞争中脱颖而出，获得了在美国国家卫生研究院（National Institutes of Health，简称NIH）工作的机会。但陈晓伟计划返回中国，回到他的本科学校——北京大学。

“The opportunities there might be more nourishing for young people like me to develop scientifically,” he said.

他说，“对于像我这样的年轻人来说，那里可能有更好的科研机会。”

Mr. Chen remains in a minority. Most top-ranked Chinese students offered jobs at American institutions after finishing doctorates still choose to stay. “He’s more the exception than the rule,” said Denis F. Simon, a professor of politics and global studies at Arizona State University who specializes in China policy.

陈晓伟依然只代表少数人。不少顶尖的中国学生在获得博士学位后会进入美国机构工作，其中大多数人仍会选择留在美国。亚利桑那州立大学(Arizona State University)的政治学及全球研究教授丹尼斯·F·西蒙(Denis F. Simon)表示， “他更多的是个例外，不算是普遍情况。”西蒙专门研究中国政策。

Yet Mr. Chen might also be a warning flag: As Congress debates whether to extend green-card privileges to foreign students earning doctorates in the sciences, the question may be growing moot. Top-ranking students are already finding that they can stay if they want — and many do not. The nation’s continuing disinvestment in science is making overseas options appear increasingly attractive.

然而，陈晓伟可能也是一记警钟：尽管国会正在就是否延长给获得理工科博士学位的外国学生优先发放绿卡的特权展开讨论，但这个问题可能会变得实际意义不大。优秀的学生已经发现，如果他们想要留在美国，就能办到，但问题是很多人并不想。美国持续缩减对科学领域的投入，使得其他国家的吸引力越来越大。

“Anybody in academe knows,” says Michael S. Teitelbaum, a Harvard University expert in the global competition for scientific talent, “the offers coming from Chinese institutions are getting more and more attractive.”

“学术界的人都知道，”哈佛大学(Harvard University)的专家迈克尔·S·泰特尔鲍姆(Michael S. Teitelbaum)说。“中国机构提供的机会愈发具有吸引力。”泰特尔鲍姆主要研究争夺科学人才的全球竞争。

As the world grows more interconnected, says Mr. Simon, distance from the United States becomes less of an impediment to career success.

西蒙表示，随着世界各国的联系变得日益紧密，与美国之间的地理距离逐渐不再是阻碍事业成功的因素。

Mr. Chen’s case gained attention in April during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing with the heads of the major federal science agencies.

今年4月，主要联邦科学机构的负责人出席了参议院拨款委员会(Senate Appropriations Committee)的听证会。会上，陈晓伟的例子引起了关注。

The event was a call for helping the economy by investing more federal money in scientific research. Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, took the opportunity to bemoan the loss of many accomplished Asian students. “What a waste, that we would bring this talent to America, train it, and then invite it to leave,” he commented.

听证会的主旨在于呼吁联邦政府在科研上投入更多资金，从而提振经济。来自伊利诺伊州的民主党参议员理查德·J·德宾(Richard J. Durbin)利用这次机会，哀叹美国失去了大量的优秀亚洲学生。他评论道，“太浪费了，我们将人才引入美国，进行培养，然后任由他们离开。”

A bill Mr. Durbin has been promoting, backed by the Obama administration and leading lawmakers from both parties, would grant a green card, or permanent legal residency, to any foreigner who earned a doctorate in a science or engineering field at an American university and received a job offer based on it.

德宾的提案获得了奥巴马政府及两党主要议员的支持。根据该提案，在美国高等院校获得理工科博士学位并借此赢得工作机会的外国人，均可直接获得绿卡，即永久居留权。

The director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis S. Collins, responded to Mr. Durbin by telling him about Mr. Chen and the multimillion-dollar package he was offered by Peking University, and how China’s approach to pursuing research compared with the prolonged period of budgetary stress facing scientists in the United States.

NIH的院长弗朗西斯·S·柯林斯(Francis S. Collins)向德宾提到了陈晓伟的情况，称北京大学为他提供的待遇价值数百万美元。他还描述了中国在如何努力地搞研究，相比之下，待在美国的科学家则长期面临预算紧张的困境。

“Certainly the visa situation is a big part of the issue, and it would be great to get that fixed,” Dr. Collins told the senator. “But even if that’s fixed, then people don’t see that there’s a future for them by staying in the American medical system — and it looks much brighter in Singapore or China or South Korea or Brazil — then they’re going to go where the opportunities are.”

“当然，签证是一大问题，如果能解决的话，是很棒的，”柯林斯对德宾说。“但即便这个问题解决了，要是他们觉得留在美国的医学研究系统看不到未来，而在新加坡、中国、韩国或巴西的前景会更好，他们就会到有机会的地方去。”

Some in Congress are concerned about declining federal support for science — the National Institutes’s budget is about 25 percent smaller than it was 10 years ago, in inflation-adjusted dollars.

联邦政府对科研的支持力度不断减弱：经过通货膨胀调整，NIH的预算比10年前少了25%左右。一些国会成员对此忧心忡忡。

“China is about to eat our lunch,” Rep. Jackie Speier, Democrat of California, told a staff briefing last month on Capitol Hill.

来自加利福尼亚州的民主党众议员杰姬·施派尔(Jackie Speier)上个月在国会山参加工作人员通报会时表示，“中国即将吃掉我们的午餐。”

Speaking from Ann Arbor, Mich., Mr. Chen reiterated Dr. Collins’s point about economics being more important than visa rules. Even without the green-card legislation, versions of which have been pursued unsuccessfully in Congress for years, Mr. Chen said he had seen that most top-ranked foreign science graduates who really wanted to stay in the United States managed to find a way.

身处密歇根州安娜堡的陈晓伟接受采访时重申了柯林斯的观点，即经济因素比签证规定更重要。他表示，即便没有绿卡新规，大多数的确想要待在美国的优秀外国理工科毕业生仍能设法留下。国会多年来推出了不少版本的绿卡提案，但均未能成功通过。

While a green-card bill may help foreign science graduates ranked at middle and lower performance levels, those recognized as star performers are eligible for visas, based on certain high-demand skills. “A visa is definitely not too much of a problem for many good people,” Mr. Chen said.

绿卡提案可能会对中低水平的外国理工科毕业生有所帮助，但那些顶尖的学生本已具备某些高需求技能，因此目前就有资格获得签证。陈晓伟说，“对于很多优秀的人来说，签证绝对不是什么大问题。”

Two of the most high-profile losses of foreign scientific talent in recent years — Shi Yigong, a Princeton University biology professor who left for Tsinghua University, and Rao Yi, a Northwestern University neurobiologist who decamped to Peking University — even had United States citizenship and gave it up.

在最近几年中最受人瞩目的外来科学人才流失案例中，有两人已经获得了美国公民身份，但最终选择放弃。普林斯顿大学(Princeton University)的生物学教授施一公选择了清华大学，而西北大学(Northwestern University)的神经生物学家饶毅则突然去了北京大学。

Those cases, and that of Mr. Chen, suggest that foreign scientists consider factors more varied than may be assumed in many policy debates.

上述所有案例都说明，外来科学家考虑的因素可能比许多政策辩论中假定的因素要多元。

Mr. Chen earned an undergraduate degree from Peking University in 2002 and went to Michigan, where he earned a doctorate in physiology in 2008. This year he was among a handful of winners chosen from several hundred applicants for the Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigators program at the National Institutes of Health.

陈晓伟于2002年在北京大学获得了学士学位，然后前往密歇根大学，并在2008年拿到了生理学博士学位。今年，NIH的斯塔特曼终身研究员(Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigators)项目共收到了几百份申请，而陈晓伟是少数几个最终的成功者之一。

But the actual appointment of a Stadtman winner to an N.I.H. division is dependent on annual budget allocations, and Mr. Chen was told that he would probably need to wait another year or more to get a posting. Instead he accepted the offer from Peking University, which included modern lab facilities, a supply of graduate students, and — most important, he says — confidence that his budget would remain robust for many years to come.

但是，将成功的申请者实际安排到NIH的部门工作要取决于年度预算分配，而陈晓伟被告知，他很可能需要再等至少一年，才能获得职位。于是，他转而接受了北京大学提供的机会，其中包括现代化的实验室设施、一定量的研究生，以及北大给予他的信心——在未来很多年里，他的预算会持续充足。他表示，这一条最重要。

Rather than hold out the prospect of a visa that becomes an increasingly less valuable enticement for top foreign scientists, United States policy makers might instead consider reviving federal support for research and making conditions easier for American scientists to collaborate with global partners, said Mr. Simon, of Arizona State.

亚利桑那州立大学的西蒙表示，美国的决策者或许应该考虑重新加强联邦政府对研究工作的支持，以及提供便利条件来帮助美国科学家与全球伙伴展开合作，而不要拘泥于签证问题，因为对于顶尖的外国科学家来说，签证的诱惑力越来越小。

Still, the relatively few top science graduates who return home to foreign countries should not be regarded by Americans as somehow “lost” or “wasted” investments, he added.

他还表示，美国人不应该把选择回国的优秀理工科毕业生算作投资上的某种“损失”或“浪费”。此类学生的人数相对较少。

“The interesting question is not whether one stays or goes,” he says, “but what one does wherever they are.”

“问题的关键并不在于离开还是留下，”他说，“而是做什么，无论他们身在何方。”