191 p., How does recent black migration impact Atlanta's geographies of black life? Since 1990, the Atlanta metropolitan region has become a major destination for three groups of black migrants from disparate origins: native-born "return south" blacks from other U.S. regions, Afro-Caribbean immigrants, and sub-Saharan African immigrants. These migrants' ethnic diversity dismantles existing notions of "black" culture, politics, and place. Black Migration to Atlanta revises scholarship by demonstrating that we cannot understand the complexity of black lives in Atlanta without investigating the complex relationship between space, migration, and popular culture. Atlanta emerges not just as an urban core, but as a region --a multiplicity of metropolitan sites--imagined and contested through residential patterns, commercial geographies, and popular culture's attempts to accommodate cultural and geographic shifts brought by recent black migration.
New York Cambridge Mass.: Russell Sage Foundation Harvard University Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
413 p, The story of West Indian immigrants to the United States is considered a great success. Many of these adoptive citizens have prospered, including General Colin Powell. But Mary Waters tells a very different story about immigrants from the West Indies, especially their children. She finds that when the immigrants first arrive, their knowledge of English, their skills and contacts, their self-respect, and their optimistic assessment of American race relations facilitate their integration into the American economic structure
Yvonne J. Graham, CEO of the Caribbean Women's Health Association, discussed the health disparities that continue to plague racial and ethnic groups in the New York City metropolitan area at the Brooklyn-based group's annual benefit reception. The CWHA's chief mission is to respond to problems affecting immigrants from the Caribbean region.
196 p., While some scholars contend that Caribbean Black Americans' socioeconomic successes suggest the declining significance of racism, ethnographic studies have found that Black Caribbean Americans are often shocked, disheartened, and angered by the racism they encounter in the U.S. Findings suggest that racism is an enduring problem in the U.S. for both foreign and native-born Black Americans and that it cannot simply be dismissed as a worldview that serves to protect one's sense of self-worth. Itappears to be an obstacle for Caribbean Black Americans pursuing the American dream and may be associated with decreasing perceptions among Caribbean Black professionals that hard work and perseverance are all one needs to succeed in the U.S.
Uses United States census data from the 1990 and 2000 to examine the earnings attainment for Black immigrant women (Africans and English-, French- and Spanish-speaking Caribbeans) and native-born Black women (African Americans). Data for both samples reveal sizeable earnings differences between the five groups. African, English and French Caribbean immigrant women exhibit noticeably higher average earnings than African Americans. However, with controls for earnings-related measures, the African immigrant advantage is eliminated in the 1990 sample, but not the English and French Caribbean immigrant advantage, nor the Spanish Caribbean immigrant disadvantage. No significant earnings difference was found between African Americans, English and Spanish Caribbean immigrants in the 2000 sample. Conversely, African and French Caribbean immigrants' earnings were significantly lower than those for African Americans.
43 p., A retrospective exploration of the health perceptions and health experiences of first generation black Caribbean immigrant women during their transition from the Caribbean to the United States. This study utilized a cross-sectional qualitative method. Eight female study participants born in Grenada were recruited from New York, Houston, Washington D.C. and Columbus, Ohio. Interviews were analyzed thematically per standard qualitative analysis techniques.
Examines the ethnic identity adaptations of recently arrived immigrant children from China, Haiti and Mexico. Overall, three main types of ethnic identity categories emerged: country of origin (e.g. Chinese), hyphenated (e.g. Chinese American), and pan-ethnic (e.g. Asian or Asian American). These three ethnic identities were examined to assess their relationships with various social and structural variables.
Uses data on both region and country of birth for black immigrants in the United States and methodology that allows for the identification of arrival cohorts to test whether there are sending country differences in the health of black adults in the United States. Results show that African immigrants maintain their health advantage over U.S.-born black adults after more than 20 years in the United States. In contrast, black immigrants from the Caribbean who have been in the United States for more than 20 years appear to experience some downward health assimilation.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
304 p, Contents: pt. 1. Gender, work, and residence. Early-twentieth-century Caribbean women: migration and social networks in New York City / Irma Watkins-Owens ; Where New York's West Indians work / Suzanne Model ; West Indians and the residential landscape of New York / Kyle D. Crowder and Lucky M. Tedrow -- pt. 2. Transnational perspectives. Transnational social relations and the politics of national identity: an eastern Caribbean study / Linda Basch ; New York as a locality in a global family network / Karen Fog Olwig -- pt. 3. Race, ethnicity, and the second generation. "Black like who?" Afro-Caribbean immigrants, African Americans, and the politics of group identity / Reuel Rogers ; Growing up West Indian and African American: gender and class differences in the second generation / Mary C. Waters ; Experiencing success: structuring the perception of opportunities for West Indians / Vilna F. Bashi Bobb and Averil Y. Clarke ; Tweaking a monolith: the West Indian immigrant encounter with "Blackness" / Milton Vickerman ; Conclusion: Invisible no more? West Indian Americans in the social scientific imagination / Philip Kasinitz
172 p., Although selective colleges and universities boast higher numbers of Black students more than ever before, new data show that a disproportionate number of these Black students are of immigrant-origin rather than native-born. The data also show that students of immigrant origin (at least one parent born outside the United States) attend selective, predominantly White institutions and Ivy League colleges and universities at disproportionately higher rates than native Black students (both parents born in the United States).
