Statistics on the Level of Education of Cameroonian/African Immigrants in the US

Some interesting statistics on the level of education of African/Cameroonian immigrants in the United States:

• Most current data suggest that between 43.8 and 48.9 percent of all African immigrants in the United States hold a college diploma (Charles, 2007; U.S. Census, 2000).
• This is slightly more than the percentage of Asian immigrants to the U.S., nearly “double” the rate of native-born white Americans, and nearly four times the rate of native-born African Americans (Williams, 2005; The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 1999-2000).
• Black immigrants from Africa have also been shown to have rates of college graduation that are “more” than double that of the U.S.-born population, in general (Williams, 2005). For example, in 1997, 19.4 percent of all adult African immigrants in the United States held a “graduate degree”, compared to 8.1 percent of adult whites (a difference of “more than” double) and 3.8 percent of adult blacks in the United States, respectively (The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 1999-2000).
• This shows that America has an equally large achievement gap between white Americans and African born immigrants as between native born white and black Americans.

Source: African Immigrants exceed in ED

• Of the African-born population in the United States age 25 and older, 86.4% reported having a high school diploma or higher, compared with 78. 9% of Asian-born immigrants, and 76.5% of European-born immigrants, respectively. These figures contrast with 61.8% percent of the total foreign-born population.
• Immigrant groups in general tend to have higher high school graduation rates than the native-born general American population which averages about 70%.

Source:

Chicago Examiner

% of foreign-born population over 25 years old with bachelor's degree or higher in the U.S.

Egypt     59.7
Cameroon  58.7
Nigeria   58.6
South Africa   5.8
Kenya     51.4
Democratic Republic of Congo 41.8
Sudan    40.2
Morocco 36.0
Ghana    31.6
Sierra Leone   31.3

Source: 2006 American Community Survey

Comments

[Dana]

What exactly is a "native-born African-American"?

An African-American is a person of African-American heritage. Plain and simple. I'm not sure of where the confusion lies for anyone.

I am an African-American, married to a Cameroonian. I, like most other African-Americans, am a mixture of African, Caucasian (this is a testy issue for many of us), and East Asian/Native American ancestry. My husband is Cameroonian. He is of African ancestry. We do not share the same heritage, though we occupy different branches of the same tree that is "Africa".

Americans (particularly White Americans) use the term "African American" as a means to simplify a complex and diverse global people (they also use it as a marketing term). It's offensive. It's done because they don't wish to take the time to get to know the diversity and intricacies of the African diaspora...so they prefer to lump "you all" in one group. However, this is ignorant and bigoted behavior.

There is no "native-born African-American". You're either African-American or you're not. Plain and simple. My husband is Cameroonian-American. He doesn't "buy into" my heritage/identity, simply by way of a passport/American citizenship. Shrimp Etouffee, Seminoles, Trail of Tears, Missippi Chinese, Gumbo (our version), Charlie Parker, and Gullah mean nothing to him. Because it is not a part of his identity, nor is it a part of his heritage.

However, those things mean something very significant to us because they are what make up our identity and heritage as African-Americans. That is who we are.

It's disheartening that we're so permissive of the outright refusal to recognize Africa and its diaspora as a diverse array of nations and people with specific identities.