Reversing Stereotypes: African Immigrants Lead With The Highest Academic Achievements In The US

[Sophb14]

 

 

Interesting article.

[Lord Bendtner]

this has been a stereotype? When I was at school, those who came from africa to study were always smart as fuck especially at maths

[ETB5]

Not surprised, really. Those who come from harsher backgrounds are the most dedicated workers since they've had to work extremely hard all their lives, against all odds, and they won't take anything for granted. 

[ToujoursSistar]

I'm glad this article can clear the stereotypes .

A lit of african immigrants that I know in my country are usually very smart especially in sciences/maths

[Stay Away]

Usually immigrants do better in general. Plus elementary and secondary education here is a mess. I did better in college than 90% of my american born classmates because their basic education was a big mess. I would never want to raise a kid here. The education system is atrocious.

[noon]

that's bc if you get a B, african parents tell you to get out of the house and find your own way XD

[Dasom's Nose]

no surprise here. they lead harsher, unprivileged lives, and they have to work twice, thrice as hard compared to the other students.

kudos to them.

[ToujoursSistar]

that's bc if you get a B, african parents tell you to get out of the house and find your own way XD

Omg my parents were always harsh with me . When I had smth equivalent to a B in the belgium system they were like why didn't you get a A lol

[Stepkdramafan226]

that's bc if you get a B, african parents tell you to get out of the house and find your own way XD

True dat.

 

My parents are always "I will send you back to Nigeria if you disappoint me". School first no dating 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Yasssssssssssss this article is wonderful to read. 

 

I still wonder if when I graduate University I go back home or live in the U.S. 

I want a masters and PHd  within 10 years in my major. 

 

I am so glad that there are good stereotypes like this 

[TaengTaengoo]

lol those guys in the picture were like haha lets take pictures of the racists that are dumber than us

[Minol]

.....

 

The thing is that African Immigrants have lower average wages than African Americans.  Also there is a lot more going on than meets they eyes if you actually dig into these statistics. 

 

http://www.africaontheblog.com/africans-immigrants-in-th-us-making-the-grade-but-not-the-jobs/

 

 

 

Now comes a new study that finds a consistent pattern of Ivy League and other elite colleges and universities boosting their black student populations by enrolling large numbers of immigrants from Africa, the West Indies and Latin America.

 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2007-03-18/news/0703180344_1_black-immigrants-high-achieving-immigrants-biracial-couples

 

What you find upon closer examination is not so rosy. Mainly a padding of enrollment using african immigrants instead of African Americans and even with high degree rates, worse wages than African Americans. 

 

“The Low Wages of Black Immigrants: Wage penalties for U.S.-born and foreign-born black workersâ€, the study concludes that Africans in the U.S are not fundamentally better off than all other groups including African-Americans. It also concludes that Africans are economically more similar to African Americans. The rate of Africans falling into poverty in the U.S. is more similar to that of African-Americans. Lastly, it concludes that unemployment rates for this demographic are similar to that of African Americans. Africans in the U.S. are also currently earning lower wages then African Americans. Whilst Africans are doing better than African Americans in terms of poverty, unemployment, and marriage rates, it is not significantly better. Despite high education rates for Africans, economic factors aren’t tallying up.

 

There is also the factor of Africans with degrees being able to immigrate more readily.  They often can't get a job with the degree from Africa though and things like Law Degrees don't translate to economic opportunities in America.  A degree from a Nigerian college doesn't hold the same credibility as from an American college. 

 

Also other research like Pew, find differing statistics.

 

http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2015/5/14/growing-african-immigrant-population-is-highly-educated-underemployed

 

[Deâ„“phina]

The stereotype was about African Americans with good old English names and whose ancestors where brought in as slaves centuries ago not cherry-picked, elite immigrants.

[cowgirlbebop]

To be fair, the stereotype of uneducated and poor blacks in America applied more to black descendants of slaves, not African immigrants or their children. Africans immigrants are more associated with high educational achievement and entering fields such as business, medicine, and engineering. 

[Minol]

To be fair, the stereotype of uneducated and poor blacks in America applied more to black descendants of slaves, not African immigrants or their children. Africans immigrants are more associated with high educational achievement and entering fields such as business, medicine, and engineering. 

It's a false narrative though. African immigrants get crowned as a model minority but still have lower average wages than African Americans. 

 

They do have better marriage rates and some other statistical advantages but in general don't really do better than African Americans.

 

This table is from http://www.epi.org/files/page/-/BriefingPaper298.pdf?nocdn=1

The paper goes into what is happening much better.

 

 

As an example, there are more Malawian trained doctors in Manchester, U.K than in Malawi itself. Education has always been important to Africans, and it is seen as a ways to upward mobility. For many this has been the case, but as immigrants to new countries, Africans will still always face the same levels of economic discrimination that the native born minorities face. Over time, we will need to continue to monitor data to see if factors for second and third generation Africans will converge with those of native born Black minorities.

 

Basically US and EU brain drain Africa and then they are underemployed here.

[DocumentaLy]

This has been a thing for a while though. I have a lot of friends whose parents are Africans, and their parents' jobs are all very nice and they all make a really good amount of money.

 

The thing I don't like about this though is that people look at the success of African immigrants and then say "Well why can't African Americans do the same thing?" They're forgetting that they come from completely different worlds. A lot of Africans look down on African Americans and say the same thing.

[Charmy]

Yaaaassss

[Lucky Blue]

Indeed intresting article, i guess the American education sistem is easy and americans just don't study as hard as others because i know students which parents were immigrants that came from different parts of Africa, mostly Morocco, Ghana, Togo and Nigeria and aren't that clever/better than anyone and everyone as the article are making them out to be, they're just like any other student, so this article really makes me question which type of education system there's in America, seems so easy >.>

[cowgirlbebop]

It's a false narrative though. African immigrants get crowned as a model minority but still have lower average wages than African Americans. 

 

I don't now about the numbers or the wages, just what the "stereotype" happens to be. I went to an HBCU for undergrad, and there the stereotype was pushed even further.

 

Indeed intresting article, i guess the American education sistem is easy and americans just don't study as hard as others because i know students which parents were immigrants that came from different parts of Africa, mostly Morocco, Ghana, Togo and Nigeria and aren't that clever/better than anyone and everyone as the article are making them out to be, they're just like any other student, so this article really makes me question which type of education system there's in America, seems so easy >.>

I don't think the system is necessarily easy, but it is unequal. School funding is based off of local property taxes, so schools in poor neighborhoods have less money to work with, which usually means fewer programs, fewer advanced classes, fewer teachers, etc. The schools that I went to in rural and suburban neighborhoods were lovely and offered a ton of advanced courses. The schools my cousins attended in the inner cities were garbage. Moreover, the cost of higher education is so high that unless you come from money, are awarded a scholarship, or simply take out tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans, you can't afford to go to college.

 

There are also huge differences in culture between American-born blacks and African immigrants, including how much students are pushed towards higher education or even high school graduation. But that's a different story...

[Minol]

Indeed intresting article, i guess the American education sistem is easy and americans just don't study as hard as others because i know students which parents were immigrants that came from different parts of Africa, mostly Morocco, Ghana, Togo and Nigeria and aren't that clever/better than anyone and everyone as the article are making them out to be, they're just like any other student, so this article really makes me question which type of education system there's in America, seems so easy >.>

 

It's not apples and apples.  A lot of the degrees come from African colleges.  There is a lot more going on and it's a complex issue. 

 

For instance.. the whole "more in elite collleges" is because those Ivy league schools cherrypick African Immigrants to fill diversity quotas, while leaving out African Americans.  There is a lot going on with regards to how affirmative action and quotas are done at schools which leads to this.  It's also not something totally positive because it leaves out African Americans in those quotas to instead pick elite African Immigrants. 

 

The education levels also aren't translating to wages or as good economic outcomes as you'd imagine. 

 

Not to mention it lumps all of Africa together...

 

 

[Unafraid]

Usually immigrants do better in general. Plus elementary and secondary education here is a mess. I did better in college than 90% of my american born classmates because their basic education was a big mess. I would never want to raise a kid here. The education system is atrocious.

Basically this.

the US has a terrible eduation system, it lacks proper structure and very biased as to what it teaches (any thing that paints the country or previous leaders/influential people in a bad light is absent from curriculum) I never realized how badly my elementary and middle school fuck ed me up until I was in high school, thankfully college is different.