<p>In Diversity Push, Top Universities Enrolling More Black Immigrants
Critics Say Effort Favors Elite Foreigners, Leaves Out Americans</p>
<p>By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 6, 2007</p>
<p>
[quote]
Immigrants, who make up 13 percent of the nation's college-age black population, account for more than a quarter of black students at Ivy League and other selective universities, according to the study, produced by Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>The large representation of black immigrants developed as schools' focus shifted from restitution for decades of excluding black Americans from campuses to embracing wider diversity, the study's authors said. The more elite the school, the more black immigrants are enrolled.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The article goes on to consider possible reasons and describes how some "native black Americans and immigrant students both embrace and wrestle with diversity."</p>
<p>immigrants can be pretty motivated to take advantage of opportunties that others may not necessarily see or don't find as enticing.
Immigrants also may have more support from parents/extended family to attend higher education. just from my observations.</p>
<p>D attends a high school with a high percentage of minorites and many of her friends are black ( she is not) both AA and from elsewhere. ( one of her best friends for example, looks Somali*very dark-fine features*) and speaks with a strong accent, she is staying with local family, I asked D later where she was from, she replied* Quebec* ;) for some reason I got a kick out of that.
Anyway-
I am still downloading article, but I would be curious to know, is the percent of blacks enrolled in these colleges increasing?
Assuming that is a yes, is the % of African Americans ( US born) constant or increasing? or is it decreasing?</p>
<p>AA students, may also be much more interested in attending HBCU schools than immigrant students. I am just hypothesizing, but the immigrant blacks may not be that interested in universities that are geared for minority students, but blacks coming from a town like Seattle or Denver for instance, might be very excited about attending a school like Morehouse, or even Tulane in an area where there is a higher population of black residents than where they attended high school.</p>
<p>I don't think that is "lowering" their expectations, but rather the opposite, that like women who choose a womens college, rather than a coed school, are looking for something a little different.
I don't think that "brand name" schools, are going to be the best fit for all or even most undergrad students of whatever race.</p>
<p>Now if the % of AA students is declining, then that would be a concern- and I know it is a concern re AA males especially.
But overall college attendance is much more important IMO, than what the few schools in the ivies are doing.</p>
<p>I appreciate the point that black Americans are being left behind, but I'm not sure it follows that immigrant and international students shouldn't be getting the consideration they get. Black immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean are almost always descendants of slaves, just like American blacks. And while it may not compare to the historical experience of slavery, the colonial legacy in many African countries successfully stigmatized blackness, even though black people were in the majority. South Africa is famous as the last country to give that official system up, but there were white elites in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, etc. too. The U.S. has no monopoly on "historic wrongs" against its black population.</p>
<p>From the Harvard Magazine article Roots and Race:</p>
<p>
[Quote]
In June, a New York Times article raised a long-simmering issue: the origins and ancestry of Harvard's black students. The piece described the celebratory mood at a reunion of African-American Harvard alumni, who applauded Harvard's progress over the past three decades in enrolling larger numbers of black students. But it also noted that this mood was broken when "some speakers brought up the thorny issue of exactly who those black students are." The question arises because, even though in recent years 7 to 9 percent of Harvard's incoming freshmen (8.9 percent for the class of 2008) have been African Americans, some studies suggest that more than half of these students, and perhaps as many as two-thirds, are West Indian or African immigrants or their children. A substantial number also identify themselves as children of biracial couples.</p>
<p>African Americans, who account for 13 percent of the U.S. population, are statistically underrepresented at Harvard and other selective colleges. Black students descended from multiple generations of American forebears may be underrepresented to an even greater degree. Within the United States, there are also regional differences: West Indian and African immigrants, for example, have predominantly settled on the East Coast. "Boston, Hartford, and Miami all have large West Indian populations," says Waters. "And in New York City, more than half the blacks are first- or second-generation immigrants." Haynie, who hails from the Carolinas, notes, "In the South, you don't have the diversity that you do in the North. Southern black Americans are very often the descendents of slaves." (Of course, many West Indian and African families also are slave descendents.)</p>
<p>According to Haynie's study, the West Indian students' parents were better off than the families of black American students, and more than 90 percent of the parents of Harvard's African students had advanced degrees. Many immigrants come from black-majority societies, with black presidents and prime ministers. In contrast, the American blacks, Haynie says, "are a group that has never seen black leadership."</p>
<p>Unfortunately, access to the full text of the study cited by the Washington Post is available only to subscribers. The abstract (below) indicates they found no differences in socioeconomic factors between the immigrant and American blacks. It's impossible to say, based on the abstract, whether the applicant pools (as opposed to admitted or matriculated students) differed in proportion or socioeconomic factors from each other; or whether the percent admitted from the two groups differed from their proportion in the applicant pool, which could get at one of the questions EmeraldKity raises.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Black Immigrants and Black Natives Attending Selective Colleges and Universities in the United States</p>
<p>DOUGLAS S. MASSEY, MARGARITA MOONEY, and KIMBERLY C. TORRES
Princeton University</p>
<p>CAMILLE Z. CHARLES
University of Pennsylvania</p>
<p>Electronically published November 28, 2006
This analysis uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen (NLSF) to study black immigrants and natives attending selective colleges and universities in the United States. In the NLSF, 747 black students were of native origin, and 281 were of immigrant origin, yielding an overall immigrant percentage of 27 percent. The overrepresentation of immigrants was higher in private than in public institutions and within more selective rather than less selective schools. We found few differences in the social origins of black students from immigrant and native backgrounds. The fact that most indicators of socioeconomic status, social preparation, psychological readiness, and academic preparation are identical for immigrants and natives suggests that immigrant origins per se are not favored in the admissions process but that children from immigrant families exhibit traits and characteristics valued by admissions committees.
<p>I am trying to get this and bear with me , I have an African American friend , who is born here and his family came from east africa long time ago(28 years ago) became US citizens and this would make him less of African American in the admission process ???????????????????????????????????????</p>
<p>whyivy,
apparently that is what some people think. A person is "less black" if their parents came from Africa or the Caribbean. If you read the full Washington Post Article, the authors would count your friend as an immigrant even though he was born in the US. There's another current thread on this same article. I think it's in the admissions section.</p>
<p>There is a term I have heard floating around. I don't think it's intended to be pejorative, but it might be interpreted that way.</p>
<p>What I'm talking about is the term "chocolate-covered Asians," used to describe African immigrant kids. </p>
<p>It means that these students and their families seem to have attitudes very similar to those of Asian students and their families -- especially when it comes to placing a high value on academic achievement.</p>
<p>It stands to reason that a cultural group that places a high value on academic achievement would tend to send a disproportionate number of kids to elite colleges. This is true of Asians and Jews. Perhaps the same trend accounts for the high representation of African immigrants at elite colleges as well.</p>
<p>if colleges claim that urm preferences are for diversity and not a cover for affirmative action, it matters little where one is born. In fact one could argue that a urm immigrant will provide even greater diversity.</p>