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Africans are the fastest-growing immigrant group to the United States. Only a tiny fraction in the 1960s, they represented ten percent of documented immigration in 2022. Without attracting much notice, immigration from Africa has the potential to change American society for the better.
This book provides an expert analysis of the myths and realities surrounding African immigration today. Neeraj Kaushal argues that in the second half of the century, Africans will account for the largest share of immigrants to the United States. Challenging the view that African emigration is driven by poverty, war, and disaster, she demonstrates that the continent’s sizable and growing middle-class has both the aspirations and the means to relocate. First- and second-generation African immigrants are often highly skilled, and the children of Black African immigrants reach higher educational attainment than US-born whites and earn comparable incomes.
Kaushal explores the political, economic, and demographic consequences, considering to what extent African immigrants can overcome American racial hierarchies and how their presence might change what it means to be Black in America. Through eye-opening empirical data, this book makes an optimistic case that the United States will continue to be a nation of immigrants.
— Mae Ngai, author of The Chinese Question: The Gold Rushes and Global Politics
This timely and important book illuminates how African immigration is reshaping the United States. By foregrounding agency, ambition, and opportunity alongside structural constraints, Kaushal brings much-needed nuance to debates that too often oversimplify migrant motivations. Blending rigorous demographic analysis with vivid journalistic insight, this book offers essential context, clarity, and perspective at a moment when immigration and integration policies disproportionately affect Black immigrants.
— Michael Fix, senior fellow and former president, Migration Policy Institute
Neeraj Kaushal mounts a passionate defense of African migration to the United States, dispelling negative myths, showcasing African exceptionalism, and highlighting how America benefits from their presence. When Africa Comes to America is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the increasingly diverse Black population in the United States.
— Onoso Imoagene, author of Beyond Expectations: Second-Generation Nigerians in the United States and Britain
Demographic change is the most predictable force in economics, yet it catches policymakers off guard every time. Neeraj Kaushal’s When Africa Comes to America explains why the next great wave of US immigration will come from Africa—and why that wave could be an enormous opportunity rather than a crisis. The book is rigorous, humane, and refreshingly direct. Anyone who wants to understand the American economy and the world economy of the next fifty years cannot miss this one.
— Michael Clemens, professor, Johns Hopkins University, and fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics
1. Continental Shifts
2. The New Model Minority?
3. Winds of Change: Immigration from the Rest of the World
4. A History of Black Immigration from the Caribbean
5. African Immigration: Contexts of Reception and Progress
6. America’s Need: Give Me Your Youth . . .
7. Public Opinion and Rising Black Immigration
8. Internal Dynamics: Divided We Stand
9. How Black Immigration Is Changing America
10. Demographic Math
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index