New African Diaspora

Also called the Second African Diaspora, postcolonial African Diaspora, or Fourth Great Migration, the New African Diaspora in the United States refers to Africans who have moved voluntarily to the United States in large numbers since the latter half of the twentieth century. Scholars sometimes talk about three different New African Diasporas, as Africans have moved not only to America, but also to Europe and Asia during this period. Voluntary movements from Africa to the United States have taken place throughout history, yet noticeable numbers, which allow talking about a “new” African diaspora, have occurred only during this specific time frame. According to population statistics, their growing numbers are so significant that it has been noted repeatedly that more Africans have migrated voluntarily to the United States since the 1990s than were forcefully brought to North America as part of the transatlantic slave trade. The New African Diaspora in the United States stems from a variety of factors, such as the Hart-Cellar Immigration Act of 1965, several refugee programs in connection to the Refugee Act of 1980, and educational opportunities at US universities. Specific to their identity as Black Americans is the fact that they do not share the collective memory of transatlantic slavery and subsequent Jim Crow discrimination, two legacies that African Americans understand as having shaped their lives in every respect. Common grounds are seen in the joint experience of Eurocentric racism and subsequent colonial exploitation. Those who form part of the New African Diaspora are a highly diverse group regarding their geographical, economic, social, educational, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. Their professional visibility in the United States has grown steadily during the last several decades because of their high occupational rates as doctors, lawyers, and faculty members at leading universities, for example. Especially their very noticeable academic presence has led to debates about the overrepresentation of Africans among faculty members as well as students at Ivy League institutions. The high number of professionals who received university degrees in their countries of origin and then left for North America has provoked another debate on the so-called brain drain of African countries. One additional characteristic of especially younger members is their social and financial ability to not only alternate their diasporic homes between North America and western Europe, but also to move to their own or their parents’ African country of origin to either reside there for a short period of time or to settle permanently. Because of this international mobility, a growing number perceives themselves not as diasporic Africans, but as transnational Africans. One small, but still important subgroup of the New African Diaspora includes the members of Asian minorities who were expelled from a variety of African countries during postcolonial political unrests. Examples include Goa-Kenyans or Indian-Ugandans. In their case, scholarship uses the term Double Diaspora.