By Farooq A. Kperogi I apologize for suspending the conclusion of the series I started three weeks ago. While I was writing the conclusion...
By Farooq A. Kperogi
I apologize for suspending the conclusion of the series I started three weeks ago. While I was writing the conclusion of the series, I stumbled on an instructive news report in the American online journal Inside Higher Ed about a phenomenon that has been known to some of us since at least the past five years--that African immigrants are not only the most educated demographic group in America but do better than most in their educational pursuits here—but which is only just now coming to the attention of the mainstream media in America.
For instance, a 2007 statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau had shown that 43.8 percent of African immigrants (of whom Nigerians have an overwhelming numerical dominion) have obtained a university degree, compared with 42.5 of Asian-Americans, 28.9 percent for immigrants from Europe, Russia and Canada, and 23.1 percent of the U.S. population as a whole.
However, in spite of the clear advantage African immigrants increasingly have over Asian Americans in education, Asian Americans continue to be touted as America’s “model minority.”
This fact inspired a popular and syndicated African American columnist by the name of Clarence Page to note, in his Chicago Tribune column on March 18, 2007, that the high academic achievement of African immigrants in the United States “defies the usual stereotypes of Asian-Americans as the only ‘model minority.’”
He adds: “Yet the traditional American narrative has rendered the high academic achievements of black immigrants from Africa… invisible, as if that were a taboo topic.”
Well, it seems it’s now ceasing to be a taboo topic. In the March 17 edition of Inside Higher Ed, there is a story by Scott Jaschik titled “Black (Immigrant) Admissions Edge,” which calls attention to what had been largely ignored in the US media: African immigrants are now America’s model minority.”
The discourse of the “model minority” myth, as George Lowery of Cornell University points out, “derives from the perception that Asian cultural values of hard work, family cohesion, self-sufficiency and a drive for success propelled recent immigrants into and beyond the American middle class within a generation or two.”
In the article below, interestingly, similar claims are being made about African immigrants in the United States. However, the object of the discourse of “model minority” is often to take a cheap, subtle shot at native-born American blacks: to show that their under-achievement relative to other demographic groups in America is a consequence either of their culture or of their congenital inadequacies, and not the consequence of hundreds of years of systematic psychological and physical exclusion.
Well, that is a topic for another day. Enjoy the article below. It is edited for space:
The election of Barack Obama -- African American because of his African father, distinguishing him from how the phrase is commonly used -- has brought unprecedented attention to the diversity of backgrounds of those covered by the term. Within higher education, one of the more sensitive issues in discussion of admissions and affirmative action in recent years has been the relative success of immigrant black Americans compared to black people who have been in the United States for generations.
A new study has found that among high school graduates, “immigrant blacks” -- defined as those who immigrated to the United States or their children -- are significantly more likely than other black Americans to attend selective colleges. In fact, immigrant black Americans are more likely than white students to attend such colleges.
The research -- published in the journal Sociology of Education -- is the second major study in two years to try to define the “advantage” of some black applicants to top college. In 2007, a team of researchers published a study in The American Journal of Education finding that while only about 13 percent of black people aged 18 or 19 in the United States are first- or second-generation immigrants, they made up 27 percent of black students at the selective colleges studied.
The new study focuses on the entire population of high school graduates to see where they go to college, comparing immigrant black people, “native-born blacks” (the authors’ terms for others), and white students. The authors are two assistant professors of sociology -- Pamela R. Bennett of Johns Hopkins University and Amy Lutz of Syracuse University.
They begin their study by noting that previous research has documented that a smaller proportion of black high school graduates than white high school graduates enroll in college. But when students of similar socioeconomic status are compared, the black high school graduates are more likely than their white counterparts to enroll. Given the debate about the immigrant factor in analyzing black enrollments, the authors set out to determine “whether this net black advantage is very African American.”
Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, Bennett and Lutz found that among high school graduates, 75.1 percent of immigrant blacks enrolled in college, a slightly higher percentage than that of whites (72.5 percent) and substantially larger than for native blacks (60.2 percent).
In terms of the college destinations of those who enrolled in college, the rates for immigrant blacks compared to other black students were similar for two-year colleges and non-selective four-year colleges that are not historically black. The biggest gap was at selective colleges, which enroll only 2.4 percent of native black high school graduates but 9.2 percent of immigrant blacks (and 7.3 percent of whites). Native black students are more likely than immigrants to enroll at historically black colleges. But the authors noted that historically black colleges are clearly appealing to some percentage of the black immigrant population, even though those students wouldn’t have the same multi-generation ties to the colleges that are found among many African Americans.
The authors of the new study note that there are key differences in the demographics of the black Americans whose families are new to the United States and those who aren’t. Immigrant black students are more likely than other black students to grow up In two-parent families and to attend private schools -- both characteristics that, across all sorts of groups, tend to indicate a greater likelihood of attending a selective college.
While their study found success for non-immigrant black students in enrolling in some kinds of colleges, the authors note that the sector -- selective colleges -- in which this is less likely is also the sector most likely to lead to many kinds of high wage careers. More examination of the issue is needed, the authors write, to combat “continued socioeconomic inequality.”
That scholarly phrasing may not do justice to the tensions raised by such issues. In 2003, at a reunion of black alumni of Harvard University, Lani Guinier, a law professor, was quoted by The Boston Globe as raising the question of whether black students who are “voluntary immigrants” should be the beneficiaries of affirmative action.
"If you look around Harvard College today, how many young people will you find who grew up in urban environments and went to public high schools and public junior high schools?" she said. "I don't think, in the name of affirmative action, we should be admitting people because they look like us, but then they don't identify with us."
I apologize for suspending the conclusion of the series I started three weeks ago. While I was writing the conclusion of the series, I stumbled on an instructive news report in the American online journal Inside Higher Ed about a phenomenon that has been known to some of us since at least the past five years--that African immigrants are not only the most educated demographic group in America but do better than most in their educational pursuits here—but which is only just now coming to the attention of the mainstream media in America.
For instance, a 2007 statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau had shown that 43.8 percent of African immigrants (of whom Nigerians have an overwhelming numerical dominion) have obtained a university degree, compared with 42.5 of Asian-Americans, 28.9 percent for immigrants from Europe, Russia and Canada, and 23.1 percent of the U.S. population as a whole.
However, in spite of the clear advantage African immigrants increasingly have over Asian Americans in education, Asian Americans continue to be touted as America’s “model minority.”
This fact inspired a popular and syndicated African American columnist by the name of Clarence Page to note, in his Chicago Tribune column on March 18, 2007, that the high academic achievement of African immigrants in the United States “defies the usual stereotypes of Asian-Americans as the only ‘model minority.’”
He adds: “Yet the traditional American narrative has rendered the high academic achievements of black immigrants from Africa… invisible, as if that were a taboo topic.”
Well, it seems it’s now ceasing to be a taboo topic. In the March 17 edition of Inside Higher Ed, there is a story by Scott Jaschik titled “Black (Immigrant) Admissions Edge,” which calls attention to what had been largely ignored in the US media: African immigrants are now America’s model minority.”
The discourse of the “model minority” myth, as George Lowery of Cornell University points out, “derives from the perception that Asian cultural values of hard work, family cohesion, self-sufficiency and a drive for success propelled recent immigrants into and beyond the American middle class within a generation or two.”
In the article below, interestingly, similar claims are being made about African immigrants in the United States. However, the object of the discourse of “model minority” is often to take a cheap, subtle shot at native-born American blacks: to show that their under-achievement relative to other demographic groups in America is a consequence either of their culture or of their congenital inadequacies, and not the consequence of hundreds of years of systematic psychological and physical exclusion.
Well, that is a topic for another day. Enjoy the article below. It is edited for space:
The election of Barack Obama -- African American because of his African father, distinguishing him from how the phrase is commonly used -- has brought unprecedented attention to the diversity of backgrounds of those covered by the term. Within higher education, one of the more sensitive issues in discussion of admissions and affirmative action in recent years has been the relative success of immigrant black Americans compared to black people who have been in the United States for generations.
A new study has found that among high school graduates, “immigrant blacks” -- defined as those who immigrated to the United States or their children -- are significantly more likely than other black Americans to attend selective colleges. In fact, immigrant black Americans are more likely than white students to attend such colleges.
The research -- published in the journal Sociology of Education -- is the second major study in two years to try to define the “advantage” of some black applicants to top college. In 2007, a team of researchers published a study in The American Journal of Education finding that while only about 13 percent of black people aged 18 or 19 in the United States are first- or second-generation immigrants, they made up 27 percent of black students at the selective colleges studied.
The new study focuses on the entire population of high school graduates to see where they go to college, comparing immigrant black people, “native-born blacks” (the authors’ terms for others), and white students. The authors are two assistant professors of sociology -- Pamela R. Bennett of Johns Hopkins University and Amy Lutz of Syracuse University.
They begin their study by noting that previous research has documented that a smaller proportion of black high school graduates than white high school graduates enroll in college. But when students of similar socioeconomic status are compared, the black high school graduates are more likely than their white counterparts to enroll. Given the debate about the immigrant factor in analyzing black enrollments, the authors set out to determine “whether this net black advantage is very African American.”
Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, Bennett and Lutz found that among high school graduates, 75.1 percent of immigrant blacks enrolled in college, a slightly higher percentage than that of whites (72.5 percent) and substantially larger than for native blacks (60.2 percent).
In terms of the college destinations of those who enrolled in college, the rates for immigrant blacks compared to other black students were similar for two-year colleges and non-selective four-year colleges that are not historically black. The biggest gap was at selective colleges, which enroll only 2.4 percent of native black high school graduates but 9.2 percent of immigrant blacks (and 7.3 percent of whites). Native black students are more likely than immigrants to enroll at historically black colleges. But the authors noted that historically black colleges are clearly appealing to some percentage of the black immigrant population, even though those students wouldn’t have the same multi-generation ties to the colleges that are found among many African Americans.
The authors of the new study note that there are key differences in the demographics of the black Americans whose families are new to the United States and those who aren’t. Immigrant black students are more likely than other black students to grow up In two-parent families and to attend private schools -- both characteristics that, across all sorts of groups, tend to indicate a greater likelihood of attending a selective college.
While their study found success for non-immigrant black students in enrolling in some kinds of colleges, the authors note that the sector -- selective colleges -- in which this is less likely is also the sector most likely to lead to many kinds of high wage careers. More examination of the issue is needed, the authors write, to combat “continued socioeconomic inequality.”
That scholarly phrasing may not do justice to the tensions raised by such issues. In 2003, at a reunion of black alumni of Harvard University, Lani Guinier, a law professor, was quoted by The Boston Globe as raising the question of whether black students who are “voluntary immigrants” should be the beneficiaries of affirmative action.
"If you look around Harvard College today, how many young people will you find who grew up in urban environments and went to public high schools and public junior high schools?" she said. "I don't think, in the name of affirmative action, we should be admitting people because they look like us, but then they don't identify with us."
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