A new report from the Pew Research Center highlights striking data about the population growth of Black immigrants in the U.S.
According to the study, there were 4.6 million Black immigrants living in the United States in 2019, an increase of 3% since 1980. The report adds that about 1 in 10 Black people living in the U.S. are not born in America.
At this rate, according to the data, the country's Black immigrant population would eventually exceed the U.S.-born Black population.
The U.S. Black immigrant population is expected to increase to 9.5 million by 2060, more than doubling the current total.
About 9% of Black people in the U.S. are second-generation Americans who have at least one parent born abroad, according to Pew.
Looking at the socio-economic status of Black immigrants, the data reveals that they have more college degrees than U.S.-born Black people and a higher median household income. Still, Black immigrants face the same amount of discrimination as Black people born in the U.S, the study concludes.
Abraham Paulos, deputy director of policy and communications for the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, said his organization provides financial resources, food and clothing to help immigrants overcome the challenges they face in the U.S.
“We fight for two things: racial justice and migrant rights,” Paulos told NBC News. “We fight for Black people.”
Paulos, who migrated to the U.S. with his family as a child in the 1980s after he was born in Sudan, said the criminal justice system creates a huge hurdle for Black immigrants.
“I’ve had cousins that have gotten deported,” he said. “One cousin just got out of a detention center.”
Although a large amount of Africans migrate to the U.S., the Caribbean is still the most common region of birth for Black immigrants, Pew concludes. Jamaica and Haiti are identified as the two largest countries of origin.
