Black Caribbean Immigrants In The US Today – 10 Things You Should Know This Black History Month

Black Caribbean immigrants play mas at the annual West Indian Day Carnival in Brooklyn, NY. (Hayden Roger Celestin image)

By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Feb. 17, 2017: There is no denying that black immigrants from the Caribbean are a significant part of the African-American and black population in the United States today. Here are 10 facts you should know about this dynamic bloc this Black History Month:

1: Black immigrants from the Caribbean make up 50 percent of all foreign-born blacks living in the United States today according to the Pew Research Center and are estimated at 1.7 million.

2:  Jamaican-born black immigrants make up the largest percentage of foreign born blacks in the U.S, with a conservative estimate of about 682,000 Black immigrants born or 18 percent of the national total of all foreign-born blacks.

3: Black immigrants from the Caribbean account for an estimated 8.7 percent of the entire black population in the U.S. today, according to data from the American Community Survey analyzed by Pew.

4: Researchers, however, have found that black Caribbean immigrants are more likely to assert an ethnic identity as West Indian or Jamaican, for example, rather than a racial identity as a black American.

5: Most black Caribbean immigrants admitted into the U.S. are less likely to be undocumented and are mostly legally admitted based on family ties and family sponsorship, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

6: Black Caribbean immigrants naturalize at a higher share than all other immigrants in the U.S. and are more likely to be U.S. citizens and less likely to be refugees or asylees or benefit from the diversity visa lottery.

7: Black Caribbean immigrants are most likely to be English proficient than other immigrants, according to Kevin Thomas of the Pennsylvania State University in ‘A Demographic Profile of Black Caribbean Immigrants in the United States.’

8: Today, some 813,000 children under the age of 10 have parents who are Black immigrants from the Caribbean, according to the Migration Policy Center.

9: English-speaking Black Caribbean immigrants earn more than Black African immigrants according to Thomas.

10: A new study from the New York City Department of Health, which examined health discrepancies among black New Yorkers, found that Caribbean immigrants tend to have fewer health problems like asthma and obesity than American-born blacks. Further, some 53 percent of American blacks labeled themselves as drinkers, compared with only 44 percent of Caribbean nationals.