African-born blacks comprise 16 percent of the U.S. foreign-born black population and are considerably more educated than other black immigrants (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000). The vast majority of these immigrants come from minority white countries in East and West Africa (e.g. Kenya and Nigeria), and less than 2 percent originate from North or South Africa (World Factbook, 2004; Yearbook of immigration Statistics, 2003). In an analysis of Census Bureau data by the Journal of Blacks in higher education, African immigrants to the United States were found more likely to be college educated than any other immigrant group, which included those from Europe, North America and Asia (also see U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000). African immigrants have also been shown to be more highly educated than any native-born ethnic group including white and Asian Americans (see also, Logan & Deane, 2003; Williams, 2005; The Economist, 1996; Arthur, 2000; Selassie, 1998).

Most current data suggest that between 43.8 and 48.9 percent of all African immigrants in the United States hold a college diploma (Charles, 2007; U.S. Census, 2000). This is slightly more than the percentage of Asian immigrants to the U.S., nearly “double” the rate of native-born white Americans, and nearly four times the rate of native-born African Americans (Williams, 2005; The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 1999-2000). Black immigrants from Africa have also been shown to have rates of college graduation that are “more” than double that of the U.S.-born population, in general (Williams, 2005). For example, in 1997, 19.4 percent of all adult African immigrants in the United States held a “graduate degree”, compared to 8.1 percent of adult whites (a difference of “more than” double) and 3.8 percent of adult blacks in the United States, respectively (The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 1999-2000). This shows that America has an equally large achievement gap between white Americans and African born immigrants as between native born white and black Americans.

In the UK, 1988, the Commission for Racial Equality conducted an investigation on the admissions practices of St. George's, and other medical colleges, who set aside a certain number of places for minority students. This informal quota system reflected the percentage of minorities in the general population. However, minority students with Chinese, Indian, or black African heritage had higher academic qualifications for university admission than did whites (Blacks in Britain from the West Indies had lower academic credentials than did whites). In fact, blacks with African origins over the age of 30 had the highest educational qualifications of any ethnic group in the British Isles. Thus, the evidence pointed to the fact that minority quotas for University admissions were actually working against students from these ethnic groups who were on average more qualified for higher education than their white peers (Cross, 1994; Also see, Dustmann, Theodoropoulos, 2006).

Dustmann and Theodoropoulos (2006) provide a first thorough investigation of educational attainment and economic behavior of ethnic minority immigrants and their children in Britain. They studied how British born minorities perform in terms of education, employment and wages, when compared to their parent generation as well as to comparable groups of white natives, using 27 years of LFS data (Labour Force Survey). In terms of educational attainment their results showed a strong educational background for Britain’s ethnic minority immigrant population. In addition, they showed that second generation ethnic minorities do better than their parents, and substantially better than their white peers! For both generations Black Africans topped the list in both years of schooling/educational qualifications and wages/employment (ibid).

Again, when comparing immigrants in the United States one quickly finds that the racialist models adopted by many Psychologists do not always predict outcomes in the way one might expect. For example, it has been shown that black immigrants born from Zimbabwe (96.7 percent), Botswana (95.5 percent) have high school graduation rates that far exceed all white immigrant and native born groups. Moreover, the average Nigerian immigrant (58.6 percent) living in the United States is “eight times” more likely to have obtained a bachelors degree than the average Portuguese born (7.3 percent) (Dixon D, 2006; Dixon D, 2005)!

The African born in the United States are concentrated in management or professional and sales or office-related occupations. Of the employed population age 16 and older in the civilian labor force, the African born are much more likely than the foreign born in general to work in management and professional occupations as well as sales and office occupations (i.e. clerical/administrative). Additionally, the African born are less likely to work in service, production, transportation, material moving, construction, and maintenance occupations than the foreign born in general (Dixon D, 2006). In the UK a study by Dr Yaojun Li, from Birmingham University, and Professor Anthony Heath, from Oxford University, found that Africans are more likely to be in professional and managerial jobs than white British men, with a large proportion, about 40%, holding these positions (Li and Heath, 2006).

Something else to note, according to the New York Times (Roberts, 2005) , for the first time in history more blacks are coming to the United States from Africa than during the slave trade. Immigration figures show that since 1990 more Africans have arrived voluntarily than the total who disembarked in chains before the United States outlawed international slave trafficking in 1807. For example, it has been shown that nearly 15% of Ghana’s 20million citizens live aboard (Owusu-Ankomah 2006) and similar trends can be observed among several other African states. In other words: black African achievement can not simply be dismissed as that of a “small group” of elites entirely unrepresentative of the greater continent. Moreover, the academic attainment and occupational achievements of black Africans are documented in the UK (Li and Heath, 2006; Dustmann, Theodoropoulos, 2006) as well as in Canada (Guppy and Davies, 1998; Boyd, 2002).

Reference list:

Arthur, John (2000). Invisible Sojourners: African Immigrant Diaspora in the United States. Prager Westport, CT.

Boyd, M. (2002). Educational Attainments of Immigrant Offspring: Success or Segmented Assimilation? International Migration Review 36 (Winter): 1037-1060.

Charles C.Z, Massey, D.S., Mooney, M. and Kimberly C. Torres, (2007). Black Immigrants and Black Natives Attending Selective Colleges and universities in the United States. American Journal of Education 113 (Feb. 2007).

Cross, T. (1994). Black Africans Now the Most Educated Group in British Society. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, No. 3 (spring, 1994), pp.92-93.

Dixon, D. (2006). Characteristics of the African Born in the United States. Migration Policy Institute. January, 20, 2006

Dixon, D. (2005). Characteristics of the European Born in the United States. Migration Policy Institute. February, 2005

Dustmann, C, Theodoropoulos, N (2006): Ethnic Minority Immigrants and their Children in Britain. Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration, Department of Economics, University College London.

Guppy, Neil and Scott Davies (1998). Education in Canada: Recent Trends and Future Challenges. Ottawa: Statistics Canada and the Minister of Industry.

Le, C.N. (2007). "Demographic Characteristics of Immigrants" Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian America.

Le, C.N. (2007). "Socioeconomic Statistics & Demographics" Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian America.

Li, Y. (2006) Labour market trajectories of minority ethnic groups in Britain: 1972-2005, Presentation at the UPTAP Seminar, LGA, London, 28 November.

Logan, J.R, Deane, G (2003). “Black Diversity in Metropolitan America.” Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban Regional Research University Albany.

Owusu-Ankomah 2006. Emigration from Ghana: A Motor or Brake for Development. Keynote Address at the 39th Session of the Commission on Population and Development, New York, USA.

Roberts, Sam (2005). More Africans Enter U.S. Than in Days of Slavery. New York Times. February 21, 2005.

Roscigno, Vincent, J. 1998. “Race and the Production of Educational Disadvantage.” Social Forces. 76: 1033-60.

Selassie, Bereket H. (1996). Washington’s New African Immigrants. In Urban Odyssey: A Multicultural History of Washington D.C. Francine Cuno Cary, ed. Chapter 15 Smithsonian Institution Press.

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, No. 26 (Winter, 1999-2000). African Immigrants in the United States are the Nation's Most Highly Educated Group.  pp. 60-61doi:10.2307/2999156.

The Economist (1996). 339 (7965): 27-28.

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US Census Bureau, Census 2000. "5% Public Use Microdata Sample."

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Williams D.R. (2005). The Health of U.S. Racial and Ethnic Populations. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 60:S53-S62 (2005).