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)知道她想要什么。这位踌躇满志的21岁女孩希望在明年夏季获得法国巴黎HEC商学院(HEC business school)国际金融硕士学位后开启财富管理的职业生涯。

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.

与她的很多同学一样，她在忙着找实习工作。她一直在拜访潜在雇主，参加各种介绍会和交流活动，与所在学校的校友见面，并认真研究自己的选择。

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.

埃斯泰拉只在伦敦做这些，因为她认为，英国首都仍是开始工作的最佳地点，尽管英国在今年6月投票脱离欧盟(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，伦敦仍是金融行业的中心，”她在参加了一次访问伦敦金融城(City)和金丝雀码头(Canary Wharf)的交流之旅返回巴黎后不久告诉我。“我跟人们交谈，听取他们快速成功的故事，伦敦是你可以获得那种成功的城市。”她在英国首都期间拜访了瑞信(Credit Suisse)、巴克莱(Barclays)、彭博(Bloomberg)和汇丰(HSBC)等机构。

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.

作为一位俄罗斯公民，不管英国是否是欧盟成员国，埃斯泰拉都需要英国的工作签证才能在伦敦工作。她知道，如果她未来的雇主决定在英国退出欧盟后撤出英国，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.

她承认，英国退欧公投促使她的欧洲同学考虑在都柏林、法兰克福或巴黎工作，而本来他们的首选目的地可能是伦敦。她也清楚地知道，2016年6月的公投结果可能表明，英国不像她可能想象的那样欢迎外国人。

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.

但她说，伦敦是一个她必须承担的风险。她说：“由于英国退欧，银行可能会裁员。但我必须在这种风险与事业进展的机会之间权衡，而不是到其他国家，失去那个机会。”

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.

英国退欧的不确定性，令人很难确定英国能否保持其作为吸引最优秀年轻商业人才（像埃斯泰拉这种学生）的全球磁石的地位。一切在很大程度上取决于他们收到的信号。

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?

目前在伦敦工作的校友是否会留在伦敦？留多长时间？英镑贬值将如何影响他们的薪资？什么会促使他们离开？英国政府会以多快速度安抚外籍员工、向他们保证英国欢迎他们留下？

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.

所有这些问题的答案都是不明朗的，而且将会持续一段时间。英国首相特里萨.梅(Theresa May)迄今拒绝在启动正式谈判之前保证欧盟公民的权利。

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.

英国《金融时报》在英国退欧公投结束两个月后展开的研究发现，居住在英国的欧洲公民中，近五分之一已做好在未来两年内离开英国的确定计划。略低于40%的受访者正考虑离开。在金融服务业工作的受访者占比最高，为27%，埃斯泰拉希望从事的正是这个行业。

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.

公投结果搅动的不断发酵的仇外心理和反移民情绪，是促使外国人告别英国的很好理由。在公投之前的几个月里，人员自由流动就成为英国人念念不忘的一个问题。根据英国内政部(Home Office)的数据，今年7月，也就是公投之后的第二个月，种族或宗教引发的仇恨犯罪同比增长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.

正如乔纳森.穆莱斯(Jonathan Moules)在他的开篇之作中所报道的，一家荷兰商学院已经把伦敦从MBA学员人脉构建旅行的行程中删除。课程总监认为，在退欧公投后，伦敦金融城和金丝雀码头不再值得造访。

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.

与此同时，埃斯泰拉正密切关注英国政治。如果明年初，英国政府触发《里斯本条约》(Treaty of Lisbon)第50条（这将启动英国脱离欧盟的程序），她可能会三思。但这么快就改变主意似乎不太可能。

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.

她多半会在伦敦开启她的职业生涯。她的盘算是，在退欧公投的影响全面显现之前，她有一个这么做的机会之窗。

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.

商学院毕业生经常把自己视为无国籍人士。他们流动性很强，善于随机应变，准备去最有可能实现埃斯泰拉所渴望的那种“快速成功”的无论什么地方。

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.

她等不及英国退欧的不确定性自行消除。她的优先任务是把自己塑造为一位国际公民。她认为，伦敦代表着这方面的最佳机会——目前而言。

“It’s important in finance and in general,” she says. “It’s the way to success — to work together.”

“这在金融业乃至总体上是重要的，”她表示，“合作是成功之路。”