Abstract
The present study examined Black Americans and Black immigrant’s attitudes toward immigration policy. Using the Houston Area Survey, findings revealed significant differences between Black Americans and Black immigrants. Findings showed Black immigrants were more likely than Black Americans to believe that immigrants strengthened American culture and contribute substantially to the US economy. Gender, education, income, political affiliation, and residential location contributed to Blacks’ attitudinal beliefs toward immigration policy. For example, educational attainment and political affiliation resulted in divergent attitudes on specific immigrant policy such as whether or not immigrants are the cause of unemployment. Educational attainment liberalized Blacks’ attitudes toward certain immigration policy while their political affiliation yielded more conservative attitudes. These and other findings are discussed in relation to the extent to which Black American vs. Black immigrants, sociodemographic characteristics, political, and residential placement shape Blacks’ beliefs about immigrants and immigration policy.
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Notes
The use of the term native-born Black Americans or Black Americans is used to refer to African Americans whose ancestry dates back to at least four generations of Blacks born in the USA.
Greene and Shelton (2017): Black immigrants, Africans (e.g., Nigerians) in particular, hold more individualistic attitudes and “tend to downplay racial discrimination and inequalities” as reasons for lack of upward mobility.
Respondents were asked: “Are you Anglo, Black, Hispanic, Asian, or of some other ethnic background?” To determine whether respondents were native-born Black Americans or foreign-born Blacks, a recode was performed to create the variable BlackID (0 = Black American; 1 = Black Immigrant).
Respondents were asked their racial classification (Anglo, Black, Hispanic, Asian) but also asked whether they were born in the U.S. or outside of the U.S. Respondents who indicated they were Black (ethgroup) and born outside of the U.S. (selfborn) categorized as “Black Immigrants.” Also, respondents who indicated they were Black, born outside of the U.S., with either both parents or at least one parent born outside of the U.S. (parsborn), were categorized as Black immigrants. Among the Black immigrant sample, approximately 60% are from Africa (31% from Nigeria); 29.4% are from the Caribbean and Central and South America (12.6% from Jamaica; 6.9% from Trinidad and Tobago).
Black immigrants were from various parts of the Caribbean: Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad, the Bahamas, St. Lucia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, also from various parts of Africa with Nigeria having the largest number of participants. Within this dataset, separating out each Black immigrant group would not only complicate the analysis, it would weaken the output due to small sample sizes within each group.
See Appendix for details of the survey questions used for this analysis.
Houston’s I-610 Loop is a proxy for income in this study. Black residential neighborhoods outside of the loop (on the southside) house a disproportionate number of middle class/affluent Blacks, while Black residential areas inside the loop house a disproportionate number of working class/poor Blacks.
Sources identify a “reverse migration” back to the South among Black professionals in specific metropolitan cities. Cities such as Charlotte, NC; Houston, TX; Raleigh-Durham, NC; and Atlanta, GA, have seen a boom in their Black demographics. Cost of living, job opportunities, social and cultural scene, diversity, and overall quality of life are cited as attractions among Black professionals (see https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/black-tech-entrepreneurs-move-south-great-migration-reverse-n1145156).
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Appendix. Houston area survey:
Appendix. Houston area survey:
Immigration/immigrant survey questions.
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1.
Agree/Disagree: undocumented immigrants are a major cause of unemployment in the Houston area today.
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2.
Mostly Threaten/Mostly Strengthens: does the increasing immigration into this country today (rotate): mostly strengthen American culture or mostly threaten American culture?
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3.
For/Against: what about granting illegal immigrants in the USA a path to legal citizenship, if they speak English and have no criminal record?
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4.
Agree/Disagree: we should take action to reduce the number of new immigrants coming to America.
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5.
Take More/Contribute More: do immigrants to the USA generally take more from the American economy than they contribute, or do they contribute more than they take?
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Greene, A.D. From the Outside In: Black Americans and Black Immigrant’s Attitudes Toward Immigrants and Immigration Policy. J Afr Am St 25, 422–440 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-021-09542-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-021-09542-6