MBA學員還向往倫敦嗎
Estella Kolobaeva knows what she wants. The ambitious 21 year old wants to start a career in wealth management next summer following a masters in international finance at HEC business school in Paris.
埃斯泰拉.科洛巴娃(Estella Kolobaeva)知道她想要什麼。這位躊躇滿志的21歲女孩希望在明年夏季獲得法國巴黎HEC商學院(HEC business school)國際金融碩士學位後開啓財富管理的職業生涯。
Like many in her cohort, she is busy lining up internships. She has been touring prospective employers, attending presentations and networking events, meeting her school’s alumni and researching her options carefully.
與她的很多同學一樣，她在忙着找實習工作。她一直在拜訪潛在僱主，參加各種介紹會和交流活動，與所在學校的校友見面，並認真研究自己的選擇。
Estella is doing all this only in London because she believes the British capital is still the best place to start work — despite the UK’s vote in June to leave the EU.
埃斯泰拉只在倫敦做這些，因爲她認爲，英國首都仍是開始工作的最佳地點，儘管英國在今年6月投票脫離歐盟(EU)。
“For now, London is still the centre of financial life,” she told me soon after returning to Paris from a networking trip to the UK capital’s City and Canary Wharf financial districts, during which she visited Credit Suisse, Barclays, Bloomberg and HSBC, among others. “I talked to people and heard their stories of fast success — London is a city where you can get that.”
“就目前而言，倫敦仍是金融行業的中心，”她在參加了一次訪問倫敦金融城(City)和金絲雀碼頭(Canary Wharf)的交流之旅返回巴黎後不久告訴我。“我跟人們交談，聽取他們快速成功的故事，倫敦是你可以獲得那種成功的城市。”她在英國首都期間拜訪了瑞信(Credit Suisse)、巴克萊(Barclays)、彭博(Bloomberg)和匯豐(HSBC)等機構。
As a Russian citizen, Estella will need a visa to work in London regardless of whether or not the UK is a member of the EU when she arrives. She knows she may have to move again if her future employer decides to leave after the UK quits the EU.
作爲一位俄羅斯公民，不管英國是否是歐盟成員國，埃斯泰拉都需要英國的工作簽證才能在倫敦工作。她知道，如果她未來的僱主決定在英國退出歐盟後撤出英國，她可能不得不再次搬家。
She acknowledges that the Brexit vote has pushed her European classmates to think about working in Dublin, Frankfurt or Paris when they might otherwise have headed for London. And she is well aware that the result of the referendum last June may indicate that the UK is less welcoming to foreigners than she might imagine.
她承認，英國退歐公投促使她的歐洲同學考慮在都柏林、法蘭克福或巴黎工作，而本來他們的首選目的地可能是倫敦。她也清楚地知道，2016年6月的公投結果可能表明，英國不像她可能想象的那樣歡迎外國人。
Nevertheless, London is a risk she says she must take. “Banks may cut [staff] because of Brexit. But I have to balance that risk with the opportunity to advance rather than going elsewhere and missing that opportunity,” she says.
但她說，倫敦是一個她必須承擔的風險。她說：“由於英國退歐，銀行可能會裁員。但我必須在這種風險與事業進展的機會之間權衡，而不是到其他國家，失去那個機會。”
The uncertainties of Brexit make it hard to determine whether the UK can continue to hold on to its status as a global draw for the brightest young business minds — students such as Estella. A lot depends on the signals they receive.
英國退歐的不確定性，令人很難確定英國能否保持其作爲吸引最優秀年輕商業人才（像埃斯泰拉這種學生）的全球磁石的地位。一切在很大程度上取決於他們收到的信號。
Will London-based alumni stay in the UK capital? For how long? How will the diminished currency affect their salaries? What will be the catalyst for them to leave? How quickly can the UK government reassure foreign workers that they are welcome to stay?
目前在倫敦工作的校友是否會留在倫敦？留多長時間？英鎊貶值將如何影響他們的薪資？什麼會促使他們離開？英國政府會以多快速度安撫外籍員工、向他們保證英國歡迎他們留下？
The answers to all these questions are unclear — and will be for some time. So far, Theresa May, UK prime minister, has refused to guarantee the rights of citizens from the EU before formal negotiations begin.
所有這些問題的答案都是不明朗的，而且將會持續一段時間。英國首相特里薩.梅(Theresa May)迄今拒絕在啓動正式談判之前保證歐盟公民的權利。
Research by the Financial Times conducted two months after the UK voted to leave the EU found nearly a fifth of European citizens living in the UK had made firm plans to leave within the next two years. A little less than 40 per cent were considering leaving. The largest category of respondents, 27 per cent, worked in financial services, as Estella hopes to do.
英國《金融時報》在英國退歐公投結束兩個月後展開的研究發現，居住在英國的歐洲公民中，近五分之一已做好在未來兩年內離開英國的確定計劃。略低於40%的受訪者正考慮離開。在金融服務業工作的受訪者佔比最高，爲27%，埃斯泰拉希望從事的正是這個行業。
Simmering xenophobia and anti-immigration sentiment fuelled by the referendum result are good reasons to leave. The free movement of people came under scrutiny in the months before people went to the polls. According to data from the Home Office, hate crimes motivated by race or religion increased 41 per cent year-on-year in July, the month after the vote.
公投結果攪動的不斷髮酵的仇外心理和反移民情緒，是促使外國人告別英國的很好理由。在公投之前的幾個月裏，人員自由流動就成爲英國人念念不忘的一個問題。根據英國內政部(Home Office)的數據，今年7月，也就是公投之後的第二個月，種族或宗教引發的仇恨犯罪同比增長41%。
As Jonathan Moules reports in his introduction, one Dutch business school has struck London from its itinerary of contact-building trips for MBA students. The programme director no longer feels visits to the City and Canary Wharf are worthwhile after the Brexit vote.
正如喬納森.穆萊斯(Jonathan Moules)在他的開篇之作中所報道的，一家荷蘭商學院已經把倫敦從MBA學員人脈構建旅行的行程中刪除。課程總監認爲，在退歐公投後，倫敦金融城和金絲雀碼頭不再值得造訪。
Estella, meanwhile, is watching UK politics closely. If early next year the British government triggers Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon, which will start the process of the UK leaving the EU, she may rethink. But such an early move looks unlikely.
與此同時，埃斯泰拉正密切關注英國政治。如果明年初，英國政府觸發《里斯本條約》(Treaty of Lisbon)第50條（這將啓動英國脫離歐盟的程序），她可能會三思。但這麼快就改變主意似乎不太可能。
She will, in all likelihood, start her career in London. But she has calculated that she has a window of opportunity to do so before the full effect of Brexit is felt.
她多半會在倫敦開啓她的職業生涯。她的盤算是，在退歐公投的影響全面顯現之前，她有一個這麼做的機會之窗。
Business school graduates often see themselves as stateless. They are highly mobile and resourceful, prepared to go wherever the “fast success” Estella craves is most likely to materialise.
商學院畢業生經常把自己視爲無國籍人士。他們流動性很強，善於隨機應變，準備去最有可能實現埃斯泰拉所渴望的那種“快速成功”的無論什麼地方。
She cannot wait for the Brexit uncertainty to resolve itself. Her priority is to shape herself into an international citizen. And London is where she believes she has the best chance of doing so — for now.
她等不及英國退歐的不確定性自行消除。她的優先任務是把自己塑造爲一位國際公民。她認爲，倫敦代表着這方面的最佳機會——目前而言。
“It’s important in finance and in general,” she says. “It’s the way to success — to work together.”
“這在金融業乃至總體上是重要的，”她表示，“合作是成功之路。”
