张瑾：“二战”后英国科技人才流失到美国的现象背后——对英美科技人才相关政策的历史考察

摘要

　　科技人才属于国家最重要的战略资源，是社会经济发展的主要动力，其规模和素质是衡量一个国家综合国力和发展潜力的重要指标。科技人才的迁移必然会影响到国家对科技人才的保有量，必然会对国家的综合国力产生直接影响，从而也就成为判断一国实力发展变化的根据之一。

　　科技人才的国际迁移可以追溯到工业革命或者更早的时期。进入20世纪以后，尤其“二战”以后，随着经济全球化的展开，科技人才的跨国流动出现了加速发展的趋势。

　　英国是第一个完成工业革命的老牌资本主义国家，其科技人才的发展与流动最为典型。随着工业革命的完成，英国的经济实力跃居世界前列，科技人才大量涌现。然而，英国的科技人才自工业革命期间开始就向北美等地区迁移，“二战”后以更大的规模向美国等地移居，出现了“人才流失”的局面。这种现象的发生与英国的经济实力的变化关系密切，也与英国长期以来的科技投入、高等教育和移民政策等方面存在的问题有关。英国政府采取了一系列改革措施，但这些措施的战略性不强，未能阻止本国科技人才的外流。然而，令英国政府感到欣慰的是，这些措施吸引了亚洲、欧洲大陆和非洲一些国家的优秀科技人才，成为除美国之外的一个重要人力资源接收国。

　　美国在19世纪成为新型的资本主义国家，也是众所周知的移民大国。20世纪以来，科技人才在美国外来移民中的比重越来越大，其中很多来自英国。这些外来科技人才的成就一定程度上增强了美国在两次世界大战中军事和经济上的优势。然而，“二战”后，美国的科技优势受到了世界其他国家的挑战。在一种忧患意识的推动下，美国政府采取了一系列吸引科技人才的政策，并用法律确定下来，为科技人才提供各种优厚的待遇和优越的发展环境。大批优秀科技人才涌入美国，使美国的人才智库不断得到充实，这进一步促进了美国在科技和经济领域的发展。

　　英国和美国这一老一新资本主义国家在人才流动问题上形成了鲜明对比，这主要是由两国的经济实力变化和高等教育、科技投入以及移民政策等方面的差异造成的。在20世纪，尤其二战以后，英国经济实力的明显衰落和美国经济实力的迅速提升是导致英国科技人才流失到美国的根本原因。二战以后，英国在人才方面虽然出台了一些措施，但整体来说缺乏战略性，且实施中存在各种问题，而美国在这方面战略的连续性明显高于英国，这也是英国科技人才流失美国的一个重要原因。

　　英美两国在“二战”以后出现了科技人才的兴衰接替，而这种接替与两国的国力兴替成正比。英国的人才大国地位在20世纪初受到美国的挑战，最终在20世纪中期被其取代。英国科技人才的持续外流对于英国大国地位的恢复和保持仍是一种挑战，而美国源源不断地获得优秀科技人才的这种局面则进一步促进了其科技和经济的发展。可以说，科技人才的流动和科技发展政策及战略直接影响到了英美两国的政治、经济和国际地位的演变。

　　关键词：英国；科技人才；人才流失；美国；人才政策

Abstract

　　Scientific and technological personnel belonging to the country's most important strategic resource, and it is the main driving force for social and economic development, so its size and quality are important indicators to measure a country's comprehensive national strength and development potential. The migration of the technology professionals will inevitably affect the national ownership of scientific and technological personnel, and it is bound to have a direct impact on the country's comprehensive national strength, thus it is one of the estimates to judge the development and change of the country’s strength.

　　The international migration of the technology professionals can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution or the earlier period. After the beginning of the 20th century, especially after the Second World War, with the expansion of economic globalization, the transnational flow of scientific and technological personnel appeared to accelerate.

　　Britain is the old capitalist country which first completed the industrial revolution, so the development and flow of its technology professionals is the most typical. With the completion of the Industrial Revolution, the economic strength of the United Kingdom is the largest in the world, and a large number of scientific and technological personnel emerged. However, technology professionals in the United Kingdom started migrating to North America and other regions since the Industrial Revolution, and after World War II, the migration to the United States and other places has been on a larger scale, thus a “brain drain” situation appeared. The occurrence of this phenomenon is closely related to the British economic strength changes, and also related to its long-term investment in science and technology, higher education and immigration policies. The British government has taken a series of reform measures, but these measures are not strong strategic, and they failed to prevent the outflow of the talents. However, the British government was pleased that these measures has attracted lots of technological talents from Asia, continental Europe and Africa, and it has become an important human resources receiving countries besides the United States.

　　In the 19th century, America became a new capitalist country, but also the well-known big country of immigrants. Since the 20th century, the proportion of the technology professionals immigrants has been growing bigger and bigger in the United States, many of them from the United Kingdom. To some degree, the achievements of these foreign technology professionals have enhanced military and economic advantage of America in two world wars. However, after World War II, the scientific and technological advantages of the United States have challenged by other countries of the world. Driven by a sense of urgency, the U.S. government has adopted a series of policies to attract technology talents, and provide a variety of favorable treatment and environment for the development of scientific and technological personnel. A large number of technological talents rush into the United States, so that its think tank continues to be strengthened, and that further promote the development in the field of science and technology and economic.

　　The United Kingdom and the United States are two new and old capitalist countries, and they are in stark contrast on the issue of the flow of talents, which is mainly caused by the differences of the two countries' economic strength changes and higher education, science and technology investment and immigration policies. In the 20th century, especially after World War II, the apparent decline of British economic strength and rapid increases in U.S. economic strength is the root cause of the British brain drain to the United States. After World War II, Britain introduced a number of measures, but lack of strategic, and there are a variety of issues in the implementation. The continuity of the U.S. strategy in this regard was significantly higher than the UK, which is an important reason of the British brain drain.

　　It appeared the rise and fall of the scientific and technological talents issue in Britain and America after World War II, this replacement is proportional to the rise and fall of their national strength. Great-power status of talents in Britain challenged by the United States in the early 20th century, and eventually replaced by USA in the mid-20th century. The continued outflow of the British talents is a challenge for the recovery and maintaining of the UK's great power status, and the steady inflow of U.S. technological talents further promotes its development of science and technology and economic. The flow of talents and technological development policies and strategies directly affect the evolution of the British and American political, economic and international status.

　　Keywords: United Kingdom; scientific and technological personnel; brain drain; United States; personnel policy