African Immigrants: Patterns of Assimilation – Past Research and New Findings

Yetty Shobo, Pennsylvania State University

Africans, one of the post-1965 groups of immigrants from less developed countries, differ from pre-1965 European immigrants in their assimilation pattern. This paper explores applicable assimilation models to African immigrants by reviewing the literature on black immigrants and analyzing the PUMS data. It finds that, compared to other immigrants, African immigrants’ high level of human resources does not translate into equivalent level of socio-economic well-being in the U.S. Findings from the analysis suggest that race is an important individual and structural variable in the socio-economic location of African immigrants in the U.S.