Black Immigration: A Growing Population Striving for Prosperity and Equality

On this edition of Midday we focus on a particular group of immigrants, who are affected by immigration policy in ways unlike any other group. Black African Immigrants are the fasting growing immigrant population in the United States. According to PEW research, there was a 137% surge in the Black African Immigrant population between 2000 and 2013. 10% of all Blacks living in the United States are foreign born, up from 3% in the 1980s. They are a population that is often highly educated, family oriented and hardworking, all virtues that from the cornerstone of the American value system. So why do these Black immigrants face the highest levels of deportation, and unemployment?We take a look at the challenges that Black African immigrants face as they strive to lay roots in this country and how the eradication of programs like DACA and the Diversity Visa Program affect their prosperity.Amaha Kassa, the Founder and Executive Director of African Communities Together, joins Tom by phone from New York City.Nana Brantuo is a doctoral candidate in Minority and Urban Education at the University of Maryland-College Park, and policy manager with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. She joins Tom on the line from NPR studios in Washington DC, as does Jonathan Jayes-Green, a queer, undocumented Afro-Panamanian who is one of the co-founders of the UndocuBlack Network.And Fatima Zara-Beri, an undocumented immigrant from Chad, DACA recipient and founder of the Towson University DREAMERS club, is our guest in Studio A.Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.