1932

Abstract

I review the literature on the social integration of black immigrants residing in the United States between 1910 and 2018, with the goal of highlighting how the growth of the black immigrant population has complicated the scholarly understanding of the causes and consequences of both intraracial disparities among blacks and disparities between blacks and whites in the United States. The article comprises three substantive sections. First, I examine the changing birth-country composition of the black immigrant population that arrived in the United States from 1900 to 1930 and review the literature on the social integration of black immigrants during the early twentieth century. Second, I review the literature that demonstrates how selective migration and disparate pre-1965 histories have shaped contemporary disparities between black immigrants and black Americans. Third, I discuss the implications of black immigration for understanding the evolution of racial disparities in the twenty-first century.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054728
2020-07-30
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/soc/46/1/annurev-soc-121919-054728.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054728&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Alba R, Foner N. 2015. Strangers No More: Immigration and the Challenges of Integration in North America and Western Europe Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  2. Altonji JG, Blank RM. 1999. Race and gender in the labor market. Handb. Labor Econ. 3:3143–259
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Anderson M. 2015. A rising share of the U.S. black population is foreign born: 9 percent are immigrants; and while most are from the Caribbean, Africans drive recent growth. Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends Blog April 9
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Arnold FW. 1984. West Indians and London's hierarchy of discrimination. Ethn. Groups 6:47–64
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bashi V. 2007. Survival of the Knitted: Immigrant Social Networks in a Stratified World Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press
  6. Borch C, Corra MK. 2010. Differences in earnings among black and white African immigrants in the United States, 1980–2000: a cross-sectional and temporal analysis. Sociol. Perspect. 53:573–92
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Borjas GJ. 1994. The economics of immigration. J. Econ. Lit. 32:1667–717
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Borjas GJ. 1995. Assimilation and changes in cohort quality revisited: What happened to immigrant earnings in the 1980s. J. Labor Econ. 13:201–45
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Boustan LP. 2016. Competition in the Promised Land: Black Migrants in Northern Cities and Labor Markets Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  10. Bryce-Laporte RS. 1972. Black immigrants: the experience of invisibility and inequality. J. Black Stud. 3:29–56
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Butcher KF. 1994. Black immigrants in the United States: a comparison with native blacks and other immigrants. Ind. Labor Relat. Rev. 47:265–84
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Chiswick BR. 1978. The effect of Americanization on the earnings of foreign-born men. J. Political Econ. 86:897–921
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Corra MK, Borch C. 2014. Socioeconomic differences among blacks in America: over time trends. Race Soc. Probl. 6:103–19
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Corra MK, Kimuna SR. 2009. Double jeopardy? Female African and Caribbean immigrants in the United States. J. Ethn. Migr. Stud. 35:1015–35
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Daniels R. 2005. Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants Since 1882 London: Macmillan
  16. Darity W. 2002. Intergroup disparity: why culture is irrelevant. Rev. Black Political Econ. 29:77–90
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Dodoo FN-A. 1991. Earnings differences among blacks in America. Soc. Sci. Res. 20:93–108
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Dodoo FN-A. 1997. Assimilation differences among Africans in America. Soc. Forces 76:527–46
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Dodoo FN-A. 1999. Black and immigrant labor force participation in America. Race Soc 2:69–82
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Dodoo FN-A, Takyi BK. 2002. Africans in the diaspora: black–white earnings differences among America's Africans. Ethn. Racial Stud. 25:913–41
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Domingo WA. 1997. 1925. Gift of the Black tropics. The New Negro A Locke 341–49 New York: Simon & Schuster
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Du Bois WEB. 1899. The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study Philadelphia: Univ. Pa. Press
  23. Du Bois WEB. 1903. The Souls of Black Folk Chicago: McClurg
  24. Duleep HO, Regets MC. 1999. Immigrants and human-capital investment. Am. Econ. Rev. 89:186–91
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Feliciano C. 2005. Educational selectivity in U.S. immigration: How do immigrants compare to those left behind. Demography 42:131–52
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Feliciano C, Lanuza YR. 2017. An immigrant paradox? Contextual attainment and intergenerational educational mobility. Am. Sociol. Rev. 82:211–41
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Flynn A, Warren DT, Wong FJ, Holmberg SR 2017. The Hidden Rules of Race: Barriers to an Inclusive Economy Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  28. Foner N. 1985. Race and color: Jamaican migrants in London and New York City. Int. Migr. Rev. 19:708–27
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Foner N. 1995. The Caregiving Dilemma: Work in an American Nursing Home Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  30. Foner N. 2009. Gender and migration: West Indians in comparative perspective. Int. Migr. 47:3–29
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Foner N. 2018. Race in an era of mass migration: black migrants in Europe and the United States. Ethn. Racial Stud. 41:1113–30
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Glazer N, Moynihan DP. 1970. Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
  33. Green T, Hamilton TG. 2019. Maternal educational attainment and infant mortality in the United States. Demogr. Res. 41:713–52
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Grosfoguel R. 2004. Race and ethnicity or racialized ethnicities? Identities within global coloniality. Ethnicities 4:315–36
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Hamilton D, Austin A, Darity W Jr 2011. Whiter jobs, higher wages: occupational segregation and the lower wages of black men Brief. Pap. 288 Econ. Policy Inst Washington, DC:
  36. Hamilton TG. 2014. Selection, language heritage, and the earnings trajectories of black immigrants in the United States. Demography 51:975–1002
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Hamilton TG. 2019. Immigration and the Remaking of Black America New York: Russell Sage Found.
  38. Hamilton TG, Easley JA, Dixon AR 2018. Black immigration, occupational niches, and earnings disparities between U.S.-born and foreign-born blacks in the United States. RSF 4:60–77
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Hamilton TG, Hummer RA. 2011. Immigration and the health of U.S. black adults: Does country of origin matter. Soc. Sci. Med. 73:1551–60
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Harris AL. 2011. Kids Don't Want to Fail Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  41. Haynes GE. 1912. The Negro at Work in New York City: A Study in Economic Progress New York: Columbia Univ./Longmans, Green
  42. Ifatunji MA. 2016. A test of the Afro Caribbean model minority hypothesis: exploring the role of cultural attributes in labor market disparities between African Americans and Afro Caribbeans. Du Bois Rev 13:109–38
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Ifatunji MA. 2017. Labor market disparities between African Americans and Afro Caribbeans: reexamining the role of immigrant selectivity. Sociol. Forum 32:522–43
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Imoagene O. 2017. Beyond Expectations: Second-Generation Nigerians in the United States and Britain Oakland: Univ. Calif. Press
  45. Johnson JW. 1930. Black Manhattan New York: Knopf
  46. Kalmijn M. 1996. The socioeconomic assimilation of Caribbean American blacks. Soc. Forces 74:911–30
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Kasinitz P. 1992. Caribbean New York: Black Immigrants and the Politics of Race Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press
  48. Kasinitz P, Mollenkopf JH, Waters MC, Holdaway J 2008. Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age New York: Russell Sage Found.
  49. Katznelson I. 2005. When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America New York: Norton
  50. Kent MM. 2007. Immigration and America's black population. Pop. Bull., Dec. 10, Pop. Ref. Bur. Washington, DC:
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Light IH. 1973. Ethnic Enterprise in America: Business and Welfare Among Chinese, Japanese, and Blacks Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  52. Lobo AP. 2001. U.S. diversity visas are attracting Africa's best and brightest. Pop. Bull., July 1, Pop. Ref. Bur., Washington, DC
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Massey DS, Denton NA. 1993. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  54. McKay C. 1940. Harlem: Negro Metropolis New York: Dutton
  55. Model S. 2008. West Indian Immigrants: A Black Success Story? New York: Russell Sage Found.
  56. Model S. 2018. Selectivity is still in the running: a comment on Ifatunji's “Labor market disparities. Sociol. Forum 33:2539–46
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Moynihan DP. 1965. The Negro family: the case for national action Rep., US Dep. Labor Washington, DC:
  58. Ogbu JU. 1991. Immigrant and involuntary minorities in comparative perspective. Minority Status and Schooling: A Comparative Study of Immigrant and Involuntary Minorities MA Gibson, JU Ogbu 3–33 New York: Garland:
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Osofsky G. 1966. Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto: Negro New York, 1890–1930 New York: Harper & Row
  60. Ottley R. 1943. ‘New World A-Coming’: Inside Black America Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  61. Ottley R, Weatherby WJ. 1967. The Negro in New York: An Informal Social History New York: N. Y. Public Libr.
  62. Palmer RW. 1974. A decade of West Indian migration to the United States, 1962–1972: an economic analysis. Soc. Econ. Stud. 23:571–87
    [Google Scholar]
  63. Palmer RW. 1995. Pilgrims from the Sun: West Indian Migration to America New York: Twayne
  64. Patterson O. 2006. A poverty of the mind. New York Times March 26, sect. 4, p. 13
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Patterson O, Fosse E. 2015. The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  66. Portes A, Rumbaut R. 2014. Immigrant America: A Portrait Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press Revis. ed.
  67. Reid IDA. 1939. The Negro Immigrant: His Background, Characteristics, and Social Adjustment, 1899–1937 New York: Columbia Univ. Press
  68. Rothstein R. 2017. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America New York: Liveright
  69. Sowell T. 1975. Race and Economics New York: McKay
  70. Sowell T. 1978. Three black histories. Essays and Data on American Ethnic Groups T Sowell, LD Collins 7–64 Washington, DC: Urban Inst.
    [Google Scholar]
  71. Sowell T. 1981. Ethnic America: A History New York: Basic
  72. Thomas KJA. 2010. Racial and ethnic disparities in education–occupation mismatch status among immigrants in South Africa and the United States. J. Int. Migr. Integr. 11:383–401
    [Google Scholar]
  73. Thomas KJA. 2011. What explains the increasing trend in African emigration to the US. Int. Migr. Rev. 45:3–28
    [Google Scholar]
  74. Thomas KJA. 2012. A Demographic Profile of Black Caribbean Immigrants in the United States Washington, DC: Migr. Policy Inst.
  75. Thomas KJA. 2016. Highly skilled migration from Africa to the US: exit mechanisms, demographic determinants, and the role of socioeconomic trends. Popul. Res. Policy Rev. 35:825–49
    [Google Scholar]
  76. Tolnay SE. 2001. African Americans and immigrants in northern cities: the effects of relative group size on occupational standing in 1920. Soc. Forces 80:573–604
    [Google Scholar]
  77. Tolnay SE. 2003. The African American “Great Migration” and beyond. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 29:209–32
    [Google Scholar]
  78. Tolnay SE, Crowder KD, Adelman RM 2000. ‘Narrow and filthy alleys of the city’? The residential settlement patterns of black southern migrants to the north. Soc. Forces 78:989–1016
    [Google Scholar]
  79. Vickerman M. 1998. West Indian Immigrants and Race New York: Oxford Univ. Press
  80. Waldinger RD. 1999. Still the Promised City? African-Americans and New Immigrants in Postindustrial New York Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  81. Waters MC. 1999. Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Dreams and American Realities New York: Russell Sage Found.
  82. Waters MC, Kasinitz P, Asad AL 2014. Immigrants and African Americans. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 40:369–90
    [Google Scholar]
  83. Western B. 2006. Punishment and Inequality in America New York: Russell Sage Found.
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054728
Loading
  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error