African Immigration to United States in the Modern Era

Blogger's Note: This is a reprint of an article that was submitted to a class project when I was a graduate student at University of Maryland ischool. The class project was to create a Digital Library on Immigration, "largely an effort to examine the many faces of immigration in Maryland over the past 300 years, from myriad perspectives". Combining digital multimedia (text, imagery, and sound),the collection attempted to shed light on the current and historical issues framing immigration to Maryland" . The way students in the class went about to create this DL was by creating different task forces to work on specific issues. While selected few worked on the technical issues for the digital library, most of us worked on developing content for different era and on specific issues. I was in a group which was responsible for developing content on immigration during modern era. I remember when each member of the group traveled to different parts of the state to record or obtain materials from members of immigrant communities who arrived in Maryland during this era. Couple of my group mates went to Little Italy and Greektown in Baltimore and other couple also headed to Baltimore to learn about Irish and German immigrant communities who occupied certain neighborhoods in the city. One student studied immigrant communities who arrived from Eastern Europe en masses and whose descendants are now dispersed to various parts of the state including Bethesda & Rockville, Baltimore, Annapolis and Eastern shore. I was the only one who did not see the need to go to Baltimore or further from Washington D.C. suburbs because the group that I was tasked to write about i.e. recent immigrants from Africa reside almost entirely in Montgomery or Prince George, the two Maryland counties surrounding Washington, D.C. Mind you this was the 1990s. Since then,  lots of things have changed and Baltimore now have significant number of immigrants from Africa. In any case, the class created an impressive digital library but unfortunately the virtual real estate where the library existed is no longer exist. It only exist now in 'Wayback machine in the Internet Archive'. To view the entire library you may have to cut and paste the link below on wayback machine. Otherwise, here below is the glimpse of history and activities of African immigrants in the U.S. and in Maryland that I submitted to the project. www.oriole.umd.edu/~mddlmddl/791/communities/html/africanmd.html.

Recent Immigration from Africa to United States

What distinguishes 20th century immigration from Africa to America from that of earlier centuries is that it was not the result of forced sequestration from Africa but rather was due to a voluntary decision by the African expatriates.

Since the end of forced migration, however, only small number of Africans have been able to come to the United States in contrast with other immigrant groups.

From 1820 to 1993 America only took in 418,000 African immigrants according to Immigration and Naturalisation records, while 345,425 Asians came to America just in 1993. (Wynn 1995) Only in the last quarter of the century has the number of African immigrants grown tremendously. Two-thirds of all African immigrants currently in the United States arrived after 1980.(Brandon 1997) At the time of the 1990 census, African born residents numbered 364,000 according to the 1990 Report on foreign-born residents in the U.S. (Speer 1994)

Describing the situation prior to the 1960s, Speer wrote, "INS records show that in 1820 the first year a count was kept only one person immigrated to U.S. from Africa. Sixteen more came throughout that entire decade. The numbers climbed slowly until the the 1960s." (Speer 1995)

In his recent book, Ungar offered two possible reasons as to why the number of African immigrants in the U.S. was relatively small. The first reason is the difficulty in obtaining immigrant visas for many Africans who tried to emigrate to the U.S; except for a small number of students with bona fide acceptance to educational institutions in the U.S. and some political exiles from South Africa. Secondly, "the long, expensive journey was beyond the reach of most African families." (Ungar 1995)

African-born residents in the United States are highly educated, urbanized, and have one of the highest per capita incomes of any immigrant group. An article in The Economist magazine in its May 11, 1996 issue stated, "...Three-quarters have some college experience; one in four has an advanced degree." 

These impressive figures even surpass the figures for native-born Americans. "Nearly 88 percent of adults who immigrate from Africa to the U.S. have a high school education or higher. The national average for native borns is 77 percent. Only 76 percent of Asian immigrants and 46 percent of Central-American are high school graduates...Their per capita income is $20,100, much higher than the $16,700 for Asian immigrants or $9,400 for Central-American immigrants." (Speer 1994)

Recent African Immigration to Maryland

There has been an increasing number of African immigrants living in Maryland suburbs as well as the entire Washington Metropolitan region during the last two decades.

The significant increase can be said to follow three important developments.

The first development is an increase in the number of African students and professionals who stayed in the U.S. and the D.C. area as a result of political and economic difficulties at home beginning in the 1970s.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 made it easier for this highly educated group to obtain permanent status and remain in the country.

The second wave began in the mid-1980s with the arrival of large numbers of political refugees, particularly from the Horn of Africa, who were fleeing repressive regimes and violent conflict in the region.

The third wave came in the early 1990s with the introduction of the Diversity Visa program by the Immigration and Naturalization Services.

In Maryland, official statistics do not provide the exact aggregate number of African immigrants in the state, except that 27,509 Maryland residents reported Sub-Saharan Africa as their single ancestry in the 1990 census of population (“New Americans in Maryland” 1994).

Until recently, their number was reported under "Blacks" or "Foreign-born; Elsewhere".

The above-mentioned source provides figures for foreign-born population residents of the state by their country of origin. The number of immigrants from Sub-Saharan African countries adds up to 20,527.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau Survey, 7.3 percent of Maryland's population is foreign-born and 68 percent of them resettled in Montgomery and Prince George's counties while 25 percent of them resettled in the Baltimore Metropolitan area. (“New Americans in Maryland” 32 tab.11)

Like many other foreign-born people in Maryland, most of the recent African immigrants have chosen to reside in Montgomery and Prince George's counties. According to many estimates, the number of immigrants in these suburbs of Washington D.C., together with those African expatriates living in the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia, makes the Washington Metropolitan area one of the few areas with a particularly large concentration of African expatriates in the United States.

The recent African immigrants in Maryland do not yet have specific neighborhoods, such as "Little Italy" of Baltimore, because their arrival in large numbers in the area is relatively recent. However, Silver Spring, Takoma Park and the Langley Park area in Montgomery County as well as the Hyattsville area of Prince George County are preferred residential areas for many of them.

Proximity to Washington, D.C. and the prevalence of job opportunities in the metropolitan area were prime considerations for African immigrants for choosing the area as their place of residence.

This was particularly true for earlier expatriates from Africa who came in the 1960s and 1970s as students and diplomats and stayed as political and economic situations at home became more unstable.

Since the Nation's capital was a seat of many embassies, the World Bank, IMF and other international organizations, many of the educated African immigrants thought that job opportunities might arise which suited their educational and professional qualifications as well as proficiency in various international languages.

Even among those who came without particular professional skills, the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area's great number of job opportunities was a major factor in deciding to stay.

Other reasons for choosing to reside in these areas, other than job opportunities and proximity to Washington D.C, were the presence of friends and relatives. The large number of Blacks in Washington, D.C. and its suburbs was another factor considered by the largely black African immigrants.

The African immigrant community does not form a homogeneous group. It is extremely diverse, comprised of people of different races, countries of origin, ethnic groups, cultural and social backgrounds.

Such immense diversity, coupled with absence of data from Maryland official statistics as to the composition of the group makes it very difficult to provide main characteristics of the community in general....

Even though the African immigrant experience in this area is relatively recent, African immigrants are already leaving their marks in the areas where they live in greatest numbers.

Such marks are more evident when one takes into consideration the growing number of business ventures and restaurants, churches and the communal associations that are flourishing in the suburbs.

Religion

Religion plays an important role in the life of most African immigrants. Based on the number of members of the Protestant, Catholic, and Coptic Churches, one can say a significant percentage of Maryland's African community are followers of Christianity.

The Church of Living God at Hyattsville is one of the oldest in the region and has a large number of members who are expatriates from different parts of the African continent.

Bethel World Ministry in Silver Spring, Maryland, also has large number of members of African expatriates, who are mainly from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and other West African nations.

The Ethiopian Evangelical Church at the border of Maryland and the District of Columbia in Silver Spring brings together large number of Ethiopians including those who live in the District and Northern Virginia.

Some Christian churches like the Ethiopian Orthodox Church at Baltimore make arrangements with other Catholic or Protestant churches to bring their congregation for weekly or monthly religious observations.

A significant number of African immigrants in Maryland are also followers of Islam. Most are mainly from Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria, and other West African nations.

In addition to observing religious traditions, many African immigrants in the area also follow ancestral traditions. An example of this kind of tradition is the child naming ceremony practiced among the Yorubas of Nigeria.

Business

Many African immigrants have been successful in opening small family-based business ventures in areas of high concentration like Takoma Park, Langley Park and Hyattsville as well as other parts of Maryland.

Part of their success is due to entrepreneurial skills they developed at home and to traditional forms of rotating savings and credit associations like EKOUB. (This is an Amharic word for such an association. It may be known by other terms in other parts of Africa).

Restaurants and grocery stores are the major businesses these immigrants are engaged in.

Many also use traditional skills like hair braiding, tailoring, or dressmaking as a basis for starting their small business ventures.

A few physicians, lawyers, and accountants who are African-born opened offices, targeting the African immigrants or the general immigrant community.

Some of these businesses, particularly restaurants and stores, provide essential social functions, allowing immigrants to meet one another and/or obtain information about communal events. Certain communal groups also arrange some form of cultural events and forums in order to bring the community together regardless of professional and social status.

Passing on Cultural Heritage to Children

Passing on ancestral traditions and customs to their children is becoming more and more important to most African immigrants. Parents are concerned that children born or raised here will grow up to be part of the melting pot of dominant American culture.(Aluko et al 1997). To provide an alternative, communal groups run weekend schools and organize camps for children that help nurture cultural identity through formal and informal education.

The Media

African immigrants publish newspapers and also produce radio programs working as individuals or through group initiatives with the dual purpose of serving the immigrant community and promoting African traditions and cultures.

The African Shopper is one of the newspapers widely circulated through African stores and other businesses in the Washington Metropolitan area. It carries news items from Africa, opinion articles as well as poetry and stories. GAFFAT, a Hyattsville based newspaper written in Amharic, also has wide circulation among Ethiopians in this area as well as elsewhere.

Many of the radio broadcasts provide entertainment programs as well as news or information about events at home.Some of the radio programs also allow the African immigrant community to discuss issues affecting their lives here or their compatriots at home.

All programs broadcast by WUST-1120 AM can also be heard by Annapolis residents.

Gabeyehu Adugna and Last Modified on May 5, 1998.