The Pros And Cons Of African Immigrants

In terms of postsecondary education, African immigrants have been given priority over other black Americans for affirmative action in higher rank institutions, leading to the creation of the idea of them as a new model minority. They have been cited as the racial group with the highest percentage of university and advanced degrees at 48.9% in 2010 and 8.2% in 2014 respectively (Ukpokodu 70). There are many problems with the seeming prioritization of accepting more African immigrants into universities. Not only the fact that less native-born black Americans are not getting spots in these institutions therefore dividing African immigrants and native-born African Americans even more, but also that this puts pressure and intense expectations on

There has been a large influx of African immigrants in the last few years.“In 1980, the census reported 816,000 foreign-born black people in the United States; by the 2000 census, that figure had more than tripled to 2,815,000” (Robinson 8). Rather than higher ranking colleges adjusting to this and deciding to admit native-born black Americans who may have not had the same opportunities to succeed due to their education or family circumstances separately, in order to fill their diversity quota they admit African immigrants. African immigrants will be defined for this paper as any student “who resides in an African immigrant family, was born in any African country or is U.S born with at least one African immigrant parent” (Ukpokodu

As of right now “half or more of the black students entering elite universities are the sons and daughters of African immigrants”, a fact that slightly disadvantages the Mainstream middle class black Americans but majorly disadvantages the Abandoned (Robinson 7). These students may not have many opportunities to achieve many academic feats because of their familial situations, they could have to work or take care of their families rather than focusing on their education. Comparing African immigrants to them is not fair and “We could pretend not to notice how distinctive African immigrants are from native-born black Americans, or we could try to understand those differences and put them in context” which is what universities need to understand (Robinson 20). Rather than universities failing to admit the students who are systematically disadvantaged by the effects of slavery, they choose to admit those who are advantaged by their background, who are more likely to have had the opportunity to pursue their academics more easily. The two groups should not be in the same category if affirmative action is to continue the way