Four overarching themes underscore the essays in this book. These are the creation of African diaspora community and institutional structures; the structured and shared relationships among African immigrants, host, and homeland societies; the construction and negotiation of diaspora spaces, and domains (racial, ethnic, class consciousness, including identity politics; and finally African migrant economic integration, occupational, and labor force roles and statuses and impact on host societies. Each of the thematic themes has been chosen with one specific goal in mind: to depict and represent the critical components in the reconstitution of the African diaspora in international migration. We contextualized the themes in the African diaspora as a dynamic process involving what Paul Zeleza called the “diasporization” of African immigrant settlement communities in global transnational spaces. These themes also reflect the diversities inherent in the diaspora communities and call attention to the fluid and dynamic boundaries within which Africans create, diffuse, and engage host and home societies. In this context, the themes outlined in this book embody the diaspora tapestries woven by the immigrants to center African social and cultural forms in their host societies and communities. Collectively, the themes represent pathways for the elucidation of understanding African immigrant territorialization. Our purpose is to map out and identify the sources and sites for the contestations of the myriad of cultural manifestations of the new African diaspora and its depictions within the totality of the shared meanings and appropriations of the essences of African-ness or African blackness. The vulnerabilities, struggles, threats (internal or external to the immigrant community), and opportunities emanating from the diasporic relationships that these immigrants create are accentuated within the nexus of African global migrations. We view the African diaspora in terms of spatial and geographic constructions and propagations of African cultural identities and institutional forms in global domains whose boundaries are not static but rather dynamic, complex, and multidimensional. Simply stated, we approach the African diaspora from a perspective that incorporates the historical, as well as contemporary postmodern constructions of the Africa’s dispersed communities and their associated transnational identity forms.

Spurred by major changes in the world economy and in local ecology, the contemporary migration of Africans, both within the continent and to various destinations in Europe and North America, has seriously affected thousands of lives and livelihoods. The contributors to this volume, reflecting a variety of disciplinary perspectives, examine the causes and consequences of this new migration. The essays cover topics such as rural-urban migration into African cities, transnational migration, and the experience of immigrants abroad, as well as the issues surrounding migrant identity and how Africans re-create community and strive to maintain ethnic, gender, national, and religious ties to their former homes.

Migration from and within Africa, just like migration elsewhere in the world, often generates anti-immigrant sentiment and ignites heated public debate about the migration policies of the destination countries. These countries include South Africa as well as others outside the continent. The countries of origin are also keen to minimize losses through "brain drain" and to capture resources such as remittances. Increasingly, international organizations and human rights advocates have stressed the need to protect the interests of migrants themselves. However, while the UNDP's 2009 Human Development Report talks of "win-win-win" solutions, in practice it is the perceived interests of destination countries that enjoy the greatest attention, while the rights of migrants themselves are afforded the least. Yet migration is not just an issue in itself: it also points to structural inequalities between countries and regions. Managing migration and protecting migrants is too limited an agenda. Activists and policymakers must also address these inequalities directly to ensure that people can pursue their fundamental human rights whether they move or stay. It is not enough to measure development only in terms of progress at the national level: development must also be measured in terms of reductions in the gross levels of inequality that now determine differential rights on the basis of accident of birth.

This book contributes to the current discourse about immigration, xenophobia, globalization, and cultural exchanges. The contributors explore the varied immigration experiences of Africans from neighboring African and western countries while recognizing the social, cultural, e...

The EU is struggling to cope with the so-called “migration crisis” that has emerged over the past few years. Designing the right policies to address immigration requires a deep understanding of its root causes. Why do Africans decide to leave their home countries? While the dream of a better life in Europe is likely part of the explanation, one also needs to examine the prevailing living conditions in the large and heterogeneous sub-Saharan region. This Report investigates the actual role of political, economic, demographic and environmental drivers in current migration flows. It offers a comprehensive picture of major migration motives as well as of key trends. Attention is also devoted to the role of climate change in promoting migration and to intra-continental mobility (two-thirds of sub-Saharan migrant flows start and end within the region). Two country studies on Eritrea and Nigeria are also included to get a closer sense of local developments behind large-scale migration to Europe.

African Diaspora Identities provides insights into the complex transnational processes involved in shaping the migratory identities of African immigrants. It seeks to understand the durability of these African transnational migrant identities and their impact on inter-minority group relationships. John A. Arthur demonstrates that the identities African immigrants construct often transcends country-specific cultures and normative belief systems. He illuminates the fact that these transnational migrant identities are an amalgamation of multiple identities formed in varied social transnational settings. The United States has become a site for the cultural formations, manifestations, and contestations of the newer identities that these immigrants seek to depict in cross-cultural and global settings. Relying mostly on their strong human capital resources (education and family), Africans are devising creative, encompassing, and robust ways to position and reposition their new identities. In combining their African cultural forms and identities with new roles, norms, and beliefs that they imbibe in the United States and everywhere else they have settled, Africans are redefining what it means to be black in a race-, ethnicity-, and color-conscious American society.

By its focus on the African immigrant family, Engaging the Diaspora: Migration and African Families carves its own niche on the migration discourse. It brings together the experiences of African immigrant families as defined by various transnational forces. As an interdisciplinary text, Engaging makes a handy reference for scholars and researchers in institutions of higher learning, as well as for community service providers working on diversity issues. It promotes knowledge about Africans in the Diaspora and the African continent through current and relevant case studies. This book enhances learning on the contemporary factors that continue to shape African migrants.

Deals with the two great migration waves: from 1820 to the outbreak of World War I, when immigration was nearly unrestricted; since 1950, when mass migration continued to grow despite policy restrictions. Covers north-north and south-north migration, i.e. to the New World and contemporary Europe, as well as south-south migration. Assesses the impact on the migrants themselves, and repercussions on the sending and receiving countries.

An illustrated chronicle of the migrations--forced and voluntary--into, out of, and within the United States that have created the current black population.

This book examines the well-being and development of children in black immigrant families (most with parents from Africa and the Caribbean). There are 1.3 million such children in the United States. While children in these families account for 11 percent of all black children in America and represent a rapidly growing segment of the U.S. population, they remain largely ignored by researchers. To address this important gap in knowledge, the Migration Policy Institute's (MPI) National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy embarked on a project to study these children from birth to age ten. Chapters include analysis of the changing immigration flow to the United States; the role of family and school relationships in the well-being of African immigrant children; exploration of the effects of ethnicity and foreign-born status on infant health; and parenting behavior, health, and cognitive development among children in black immigrant families. Contributors include Randy Capps (MPI), Dylan Conger (George Washington University), Cati Coe (Rutgers University-Camden), Danielle A. Crosby (University of North Carolina-Greensboro), Angela Valdovinos D'Angelo (University of Chicago), Elizabeth Debraggio (New York University), Fabienne Doucet (Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development), Sarah Dryden-Peterson (University of Toronto), Angelica S. Dunbar (University of North Carolina-Greensboro), Tiffany L. Green (Virginia Commonwealth University), Megan Hatch (George Washington University), Donald J. Hernandez (Hunter College and City University of New York), Margot Jackson (Brown University), Kristen McCabe (MPI), Lauren Rich (University of Chicago), Amy Ellen Schwartz (New York University), Julie Spielberger (University of Chicago), and Kevin J. A. Thomas (Pennsylvania State University).