African Americans, Education of New Immigrant Groups

Model/Non-Model Minority Dichotomy

In the 1970s, anthropologist John Ogbu developed a controversial theory for what he perceived to be the relative educational success of Black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean compared to the low academic achievement of native African Americans. Black newcomers, he posited, were voluntary immigrants, having chosen to make the United States their new home, whereas native African Americans were involuntary immigrants. Consequently, Black newcomers were more willing to acquiesce to the White mainstream requirements for cultural success, including a heavy investment in education for their children. Native Blacks resisted assimilation to the White mainstream and rebelled against its measures of success, including schooling. Ogbu's theory is controversial because it places the blame for native African Americans' challenges in succeeding in the United States on African Americans themselves. It also depicts immigrant Blacks as a model minority, and promotes a psychic distance between native African Americans and newcomers, who perceive themselves as superior to their native counterparts. Research indicates that Black immigrants tend to maintain their accents and distinctive customs to distinguish themselves from native African Americans. Foreign-born Blacks have higher median incomes, live in less racially segregated neighborhoods, have higher levels of educational attainment, and are disproportionately represented among African American university students. In fact, African immigrants are the most highly educated of all immigrant groups, including Whites and Asians.

Although Black immigrants are viewed as model minorities—known for their hard work and legacy of academic success—there exists an equally powerful counter-narrative that Caribbean-born immigrants, in particular, are a non-model minority that devalues education and perpetuates the social ills plaguing society. Compared to African immigrants, those from the Caribbean are less educated. It is tempting to draw simplistic conclusions about the ethnic and cultural variations at the root of the differences (real or perceived) in achievement orientation, academic values, and school success among native and foreign-born African Americans. However, more complex structural analyses by Douglas S. Massey, Margarita Mooney, Kimberly C. Torres, and Camille Z. Charles reveal structural factors that influence the educational achievement of immigrant youth. They include the parents' socioeconomic status and level of education (both in their country of origin and in the United States), the circumstances under which they migrated [Page 60](e.g., to escape political or religious persecution, for economic advancement, or to pursue higher education), the tendency for immigrants to represent a more motivated, persistent, and privileged group among their co-nationals, and racism.

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