Africans are the fastest-growing immigrant group to the United States. Only a tiny fraction in the 1960s, they represented ten percent of documented immigrants in 2022. Without attracting much notice, immigration from Africa has the potential to change American society for the better.

This book provides an expert analysis of the myths and realities surrounding African immigration today. Neeraj Kaushal argues that in the second half of the century, Africans will account for the largest share of immigrants to the United States. Challenging the view that African emigration is driven by poverty, war, and disaster, she demonstrates that the continent’s sizable and growing middle-class has both the aspirations and the means to relocate. First- and second-generation African immigrants are often highly skilled, and the children of Black African immigrants reach higher educational attainment than US-born whites and earn comparable incomes.

Kaushal explores the political, economic, and demographic consequences, considering to what extent African immigrants can overcome American racial hierarchies and how their presence might change what it means to be Black in America. Through eye-opening empirical data, this book makes an optimistic case that the United States will continue to be a nation of immigrants.

Neeraj Kaushal is professor of social policy at Columbia University’s School of Social Work and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She is the author of Blaming Immigrants: Nationalism and the Economics of Global Movement (Columbia, 2019).