(1) Life can be tough for immigrants in America. As a Romanian bank clerk in

游客2024-09-07  9

问题    (1) Life can be tough for immigrants in America. As a Romanian bank clerk in Atlanta puts it, to find a good job "you have to be like a wolf in the forest—able to smell out the best meat. " And if you can’t find work, don’t expect the taxpayer to bail you out. Unlike in some European countries, it is extremely hard for an able-bodied immigrant to live off the state. A law passed in 1996 explicitly bars most immigrants, even those with legal status, from receiving almost any federal benefits.
   (2) That is one reason why America absorbs immigrants better than many other rich countries, according to a new study by the University of California. The researchers sought to measure the effect of immigration on the native-born in 20 rich countries, taking into account differences in skills between immigrants and natives, imperfect labor markets and the size of the welfare state in each country.
   (3) Their results offer ammunition for fans of more open borders. In 19 out of 20 countries, the authors calculated that shutting the doors entirely to foreign workers would make the native-born worse off. Never mind what it would do to the immigrants themselves, who benefit far more than anyone else from being allowed to cross borders to find work.
   (4) The study also suggests that most countries could handle more immigration than they currently allow. In America, a one-percentage point increase in the proportion of immigrants in the population made the native-born 0.05% better off. The opposite was true in some countries with generous or ill-designed welfare states, however. A one-point rise in immigration made the native-born slightly worse off in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. In Belgium, immigrants who lose jobs can receive almost two-thirds of their most recent wage in state benefits, which must make the hunt for a new job less urgent.
   (5) None of these effects was large, but the study undermines the claim that immigrants steal jobs from natives or drag down their wages. Many immigrants take jobs that Americans do not want, the study finds. This " smooths" the labor market and ultimately creates more jobs for locals. Native-owned grocery stores do better business because there are immigrants to pick the fruit they sell. Indian computer scientists help American software firms expand. A previous study found that because immigrants typically earn less than locals with similar skills, they boost corporate profits, prompting companies to grow and hire more locals. [br] Increase in immigration in Austria fails to improve locals’ life mainly because of______.

选项 A、low wages for locals
B、imperfect labor markets
C、the design of the welfare system
D、inadequate skills of immigrants

答案 C

解析 细节题。根据题干定位至第四段。第四段第三句提到在福利体系优厚或者设计不良的一些国家中,情况则与此相反。紧接着第四句通过举例具体说明了该句中的相反情况:在奥地利、比利时、德国、卢森堡、荷兰、瑞典和瑞士,移民比例每上升1%,就会令本土出生居民的生活水平略微下降。由此可知,在奥地利,移民人数的增加未能改善本土居民生活是因为该国属于福利体系优厚或者设计不良的国家之一,故c为答案。第五段第一句提到了本土居民的工资,但是指有言论认为移民拉低了本土居民的工资,而不是指本土居民的工资本身就低,故排除A;第二段最后一句提到了不完善的劳动力市场,但这是评估20个富国中外来移民对本土出生居民的影响时研究人员所考虑的因素之一,而不是奥地利移民人数的增加未能改善本土居民生活的主要原因,故排除B;第五段最后一句提到了移民的技能,但是指移民通常比技能相似的本土居民赚得少,并未提到移民缺乏技能,而且这也并非奥地利移民人数的增加未能改善本土居民生活的主要原因,因此排除D。
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