Accident, Opportunity, or Intention? New African Immigrants’ Entry into the United States Black Middle Class

• In Event: 023 - Regular Session. Black and African Americans

Abstract

Recent work on immigration tends to present one of two arguments. Either that new non-white immigrant groups use various forms of capital to assimilate into a new colorblind, cosmopolitan mainstream America. Or that these new immigrants are subject to structural barriers that limit their modes of incorporation to the lower segments of U.S. society. But these perspectives are nebulous with respect to middle class black immigrants. This article considers how the experiences of new African immigrants alter our contemporary assimilation models. I propose that new African immigrants engage in selective assimilation whereby they utilize minority structures of mobility, a set of institutions that support the creation and advancement of the black middle class. I illustrate these accidental, opportunistic, and intentional assimilation patterns with in-depth interview data from Nigerian and Ghanaian immigrants, and discuss implications for the U.S. black middle class.

Author

• Mindelyn R. Buford, Northeastern University