Has America historically shut its doors to African immigrants?

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via Email
• Copy Link

  Link Copied

Stereotypes stand in the way of progress

During World War II, Caribbean immigration picked up and was, once again, met by resistance, primarily in the form of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act or McCarran-Walter Act which targeted Caribbean migration to the U.S. through Great Britain.

Still, Caribbean immigration, thanks in large part to close relatives already living in the U.S., continued to rise steadily. The Immigration Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Cellar Act, helped contribute to that rise through its greatly reduced restrictions on geography-based immigration and emphasis on family re-unification.

In the 20th century, Haitian immigrants have especially had it hard.

Although John F. Kennedy welcomed those fleeing the tyranny of President François “Papa Doc” Duvalier just before his assassination and definitely after, the invitation was rescinded, even though they kept coming, primarily to South Florida and New York.

Plagued by damaging stereotypes, Haitians were associated with tuberculosis in the 1970s and HIV/AIDS in the 1990s. When the democratically-elected Jean Bertrand-Aristide was overthrown by a military coup in 1991, Haitians began seeking refuge in the U.S. in even greater numbers, only to be returned to the turmoil by the U.S. Coast Guard.

In 2008, the Bush Administration denied Temporary Protective Status to Haitians fleeing deplorable conditions but the tide turned after the massive Haiti Earthquake in 2010.

A wave of refugees

According to In Motion, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture website dedicated to black migration, voluntary African immigration to the U.S. picked up in the 1970s. Leaving war-torn areas and repressive regimes, refugees came in waves from Ethiopia and Eritrea in the mid-1980s and Sudan and Somalia in the 2000s.

A 2005 New York Times article proclaimed that “For the first time, more blacks are coming to the United States from Africa than during the slave trade.”

Since 1990, an estimated 50,000 Africans annually have come to the U.S. legally, a number scholars say trumps that of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in peak years. But voluntary African migration did occur before the 20th century.

In the 1860s, a steady stream of Cape Verdeans came to New England to work in the shipping industry.

On the heels of decolonization and widespread African independence in the 1960s, a trickle of Africans came to the U.S., with many pursuing higher education.

‘Diversity Visa’ future in doubt

Boons to African immigration include the Refugee Act of 1980, which allowed thousands of Africans fleeing civil and international conflicts in their own countries entry into the U.S., the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 resulted in over 31,000 illegal Africans applying for legal status, and the Immigration Act of 1990 established a lottery system, known as the “Diversity Visa,” that favors underrepresented nations and includes all African countries.

GOP plans to eliminate the “Diversity Visa” has placed immigration reform at the top of the Congressional Black Caucus priority list.

In January, Ayofemi Kirby, the CBC communications director told The Daily Caller that eliminating the Diversity Visa “would lower the number of [black] immigrants from countries who already have low number of immigrants . . . [in the United States], especially sub-Sahara and Africa.”

It would also affect Caribbean countries, she noted.

Caribbean is huge part of black community in U.S.

Black immigrants, especially from the Caribbean, have made significant contributions to the domestic African-American community as entrepreneurs and professionals.

Using Who’s Who in Colored America entries from 1915 to 1932, In Motion found that “over 8 percent of doctors, 4.5 percent of lawyers, more than 14 percent of businessmen, 4.5 percent of clergymen, over 3 percent of professors, and 4 percent of writers/authors had come from the Caribbean” despite a foreign-born black population of only.8 percent of the overall African-American population.

According to many reports, African and Caribbean immigrants are among the most educated in the overall immigrant pool. Nigerians reportedly lead all immigrants in educational attainment prior to entry in the U.S.

As the wealth gap widens between black and white Americans, losing such economic resources could devastate the U.S.’s overall black economy, especially since African and Caribbean immigrants tend to be very entrepreneurial.

But the U.S. has historically had a poor track record in welcoming black immigrants regardless of their talents, and it doesn’t seem to be changing.

Follow Ronda Racha Penrice on Twitter at @rondaracha