The presence of Africans in the United States dates back at least 150 years before the country’s founding in 1776. Black people were forcibly uprooted from West and Central Africa and subsequently transported into America as slaves to work in the agricultural industry, primarily the cotton and tobacco fields. As such, black people were primarily in the southern part of the United States. As slavery ended, most black people subsequently lived in what is referred to as the Jim Crow era, where black people had, at best, limited civil rights. This led to widespread protests and civil disobedience during what was known as the civil rights era, all of which eventually culminated in the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Voting Rights Act was a law that banned (Southern) states from making it harder for black people to vote. This was in response to the above-mentioned Jim Crow era, where black people were effectively second-class citizens with regard to both political and economic rights. Having said that, another equally consequential piece of legislation was passed later that year. This piece of legislation was the Immigration Act of 1965. The Immigration Act removed limits on immigration into the United States from outside of Northern and Western Europe. At the time, immigration from outside these two regions of the United States was severely limited. This law was signed by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson as a direct result of the civil rights struggle and was seen as an extension of US domestic civil rights. As a result, immigration from other parts of the world dramatically increased. This includes immigration from the African continent.

What the above graph depicts is that immigration into the United States from Africa started growing in the 1960s. It then exploded in the 1970s, albeit from a low base, and continues to grow to this day. The table below epicts the top birthplaces for black immigrants in the United States as of 2019. Countries highlighted in blue represent African countries.

Source: Pew Research Center

When all is considered, immigration from Africa between the years 2000 and 2019 from the top ten sending countries has increased by a factor of 3. Immigration from non-African countries has also increased, albeit by a factor of 1,5. The highest growth, with more than a factor of 4,33, comes from Kenya. This is followed by Ethiopia, a fellow East African country, where there is an increase by a factor of 3,7. In fact, the lowest factor increase among African countries (2,71) is higher than the highest factor increase among non-African countries (2,63). Notwithstanding, for the top ten sending countries, total immigration from non-African countries (1,960 000) in 2019 was still higher than from African countries (1,080 000). What this confirms is that, despite the high growth, African immigration into the United States is a more recent phenomenon and starts from a considerably smaller base compared to other regions.

In addition to the Immigration Act of 1965, the Refugee Act of 1980 was yet another piece of legislation that gave more Africans the opportunity to immigrate to the United States. At the time of its passing, many post-colonial African states were ravaged by internal conflict. The citizens of many of those countries were granted the opportunity to settle inside the US by seeking asylum. The law increased the cap for asylum seekers from 17,400 people to 50,000 people. While the number of African asylum seekers admitted into the United States through the law in 1980 was low—at only 955—it increased throughout the nineties (13 043 in 1999) and the growth continued throughout the 2000s, such that, in the year 2023, the African continent was the single biggest source continent. This is depicted in the table below. It shows that the number of African refugees has grown exponentially through the years, registering a growth factor of 26,6 between 1980 and 2023.

Source: Refugee Processing Centre

The Diversity Visa Programme, also known as the Green Card Lottery, is another one of the main reasons immigration into the United States from Africa has increased in recent times. The diversity visa programme is a programme that was meant to diversify immigration into the United States. The programme works by reserving 50,000 visas for countries that have historically had low immigration into the United States. The employment visa has also contributed to this growth. As many countries have gained increased access to higher education, more Africans have had the opportunity to gain access to employment visas and thereby settle in the US. Many Africans have gained access to the US through this kind of visa, and as a result, Africans are one of the most skilled immigrant groups in the United States.

In September 2023, President Joe Biden created a new advisory council that aims to strengthen ties between the US and Africa. The 12-member council, which includes several African-born US citizens—one of them being former US ambassador to South Africa, Mr. Patrick Gaspard—was created, in no small part, to recognise the growing people-to-people ties between Africa and the United States.

People of African origin have as long a history in the United States as any other group. Indeed, their presence precedes the creation of the country. While people of African descent have a complicated relationship within the United States, the relationship between the people of these two lands has, and will, only grow stronger. If the projections are to be believed, this growth is only the beginning, and African-born people will only play a larger role in the United States.

Thembelani Mazibuko is a senior researcher at the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa. He writes in his personal capacity. 

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