Nigeria accounts for the largest population of Africans living in the US, according to a recent research report from the Pew Research Center. The top 5 African countries of origin for immigrants to the US are Nigeria (327,000), Ethiopia (222,000), Egypt (192,000), Ghana (155,000) and Kenya (136,000). These five countries accounted for half of the foreign-born African population in the U.S in 2o15.
African immigrants are still a small fraction of the American immigrant population, however, their overall numbers are growing – roughly doubling every decade since 1970, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
According the report, in 2015, there were 2.1 million African immigrants living in the United States, up from 881,000 in 2000 and a substantial increase from 1970 when the U.S. was home to only 80,000 foreign-born Africans. They accounted for 4.8% of the U.S. immigrant population in 2015, up from 0.8% in 1970.
The growth is evident among recently arrived immigrants. When compared with other major groups who arrived in the U.S. in the past five years, Africans had the fastest growth rate from 2000 to 2013, increasing by 41% during that period. (Africans are also a fast-growing segment of the black immigrant population in the U.S., increasing by 137% from 2000 to 2013.)
The wave of African migration to the US came through the transatlantic slave trade, beginning in the 16th century, this brought hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans to the U.S, now commonly referred to as African-Americans. Voluntary migration from Africa is a relatively growing trend since the early 80’s as a result of leadership corruption and the mismanagement of many African economies.
The report noted that African immigrants from the sub-Saharan region are also more likely than immigrants overall to enter the U.S. through the diversity visa program – an act passed in 1990 to encourage immigration from underrepresented nations. This legislation was initially intended to boost the number of Europeans migrating to the U.S., but many Africans have also benefited from the initiative.
African immigrants to the U.S. are more likely to settle in the South (39%) or the Northeast (25%), than in the Midwest (18%) or West (17%), while the largest numbers of African immigrants are found in Texas, New York, California, Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Virginia. Each of these states is home to at least 100,000 foreign-born Africans.
Although, the United States has benefited tremendously from immigration from other countries over many centuries, opponents of migration are raising alarm that unchecked mass immigration will only benefit big business by providing cheap wages, destroying the middle class and creating an even larger, dependent class of poor citizens.
