African Immigration to the United States of America

The United States of America has historically been known as a "nation of immigrants." However, current rhetoric has brought this notion into question. This country has consistently been a magnet for millions of people from all over the world, and this course seeks broadly to understand recent African immigration. In Black studies, most attention has been paid to the forced migration of the enslaved during the Atlantic Slave trade. Studying 20th and 21st African immigration is key to truly understanding the Black experience in America. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 2.1 million Africans live in America as of 2015. The majority of these migrants are from Sub-Saharan Anglophone Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa), but they are also from war-torn countries such as Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia. The primary focus of this course will be on contemporary African labor immigrants, including skilled professionals, children who arrived in the United States for family reunification, refugees, and winners of the Diversity Visa lottery who are now permanent residents. The migratory flux also includes people who were forced to leave their birth countries for political reasons as well as genocide. Through the class, we will examine the "push and pull" factors of immigration. The second part of the course explores the lived experience of Africans in America, whether they are well educated as compared with other migrant communities or whether they are laborers. We will study the role of remittances, language barriers, paths to naturalization, and job opportunities once Africans reach American soil. Increasingly, repatriation (both voluntarily and forced), xenophobia and Islamophobia are challenges that rock African immigrant communities. Today, many Africans live between two countries: Africa and America. This transnationalism allows them to navigate different lives, stories, identities, and cultures. Several activities are organized in the African local com
Course Attributes: EN H; BU BA; BU IS; AS HUM; AS LCD; FA HUM; AR HUM; AS SC

African Immigration to the United States of America

AMERICAN CULTURE STUDIES 3120

Section 01