“A record 3.8 million black immigrants live in the United States today, more than four times the number in 1980,” the study found based on US Census Bureau data.
“Rapid growth in the black immigrant population is expected to continue.”
The share of black immigrants is especially high in the Miami, Florida metro area, where it amounts to 34 percent of the entire African-American population, according to the study.
In the New York and Washington, DC metro areas the share is 28 and 15 percent accordingly.
The study noted that half of the black immigrants are from the Caribbean countries, mainly from Jamaica and Haiti.
The recent growth in the size of the black immigrant population has also been fueled by African immigration, according to the study. The two largest birth countries for black African immigrants are Nigeria and Ethiopia.
The study argued the black immigrants benefitted from changes in the US immigration policy that allows reunification of families, encourages skilled immigrants and permits eligible individuals to seek asylum in the United States.
