Tag: Africans in America

Immigration

U.S. Expects to Use All Employment-Based Green Cards This Year

By Michelle Hackman | Wall Street Journal

U.S. immigration authorities project that they will use up all the extra available employment-based green cards for the fiscal year ending this month, averting the risk that the government would for the second year running let thousands go to waste.

Typically, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that processes green cards and other immigration applications, hands out about 140,000 employment-based green cards to foreign employees and their families, representing a fraction of demand that results in a decadelong wait for some applicants.

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Uncategorized

Trevor Noah Brings Clapter, Impressions to White House Correspondents’ Dinner

By Charu Sinha | Vulture

Trevor Noah headlined the first White House Correspondents’ Dinner since 2019 on Saturday night, with a set that elicited some groans and much clapter from the packed room.

Noah, moving at a rapid clip through his 25-minute-remarks, opened by calling C-SPAN’s hottest night “the nation’s most distinguished superspreader event.”

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Music

Kay’s ‘Love Nwantiti’ Sets New Record In The U.S

By Bella Ogechukwu | naijaonpoint.com.ng

Raving Nigerian musician and sensational songwriter, Chukwuka Ekweani, popular known as CKay has attained another milestone in his musical career.

The multiple award winning singer officially joins Wizkid as the highest awarded Nigerian acts to sell over 2 million units in the United States Of America. CKay’s smash hit single, ‘Love Nwantiti’ has now sold over 2 million units in the US.

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Uncategorized

Three African immigrants sue Idaho over expensive hair-braiding license rules

By The Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Three Idaho women are suing the state in federal court over its expensive training requirement for professional hair-braiders. The women, represented by the Institute for Justice, filed the lawsuit against the Idaho Barber and Cosmetology Services Licensing Board in Boise’s U.S. District Court on Tuesday, the Idaho Statesman reported.

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Opinion

Examing the poor relations between Black Americans and black Africans

By Miriam Tose Majome| Newsday

THE relationship between black Americans and black Africans has been a subject of interest for social scientists and writers for a long time.Some black Africans, especially students w ho go to live in the United States are often unprepared for the reality of the poor relations that exist between black Africans and black Americans.

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Opinion

Let us now celebrate immigrants of color to Kentucky

BY ANGENE WILSON | Lexington Herald Leader

On Jan. 20, 2021 Kamala Harris, the daughter of an Asian-American mother and father from Jamaica, will take the oath of office as the Vice President of the United States. Let us now celebrate immigrants of color. In 2013, we began to interview immigrants from African countries for what we titled “African Immigrants in the Bluegrass,” an oral history project at University of Kentucky’s Nunn Center for Oral History. We completed almost 50 interviews in 2017, just before President Trump’s infamous comment in 2018 about immigrants from “s—hole countries.”

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Immigration

Coming to America: It’s Not Like the Movie for African Immigrants

BY FRANCESCA BENTLEY | Pulitzer Center

Democracy, liberty, freedom, equality—these are the fundamental tenets Abdi Nor Iftin hoped would shape his life in America, after leaving Kenya. Upon miraculously winning a direct entryway into the United States via the annual visa lottery, Somali-born Iftin was rapturous over the chance to pursue his piece of the American dream. What he didn’t realize is that being one of the lucky few and becoming an American, particularly a Black American, comes with caveats, some more dangerous than others. 

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Uncategorized

Africans amused but alarmed by U.S. election’s aftermath

By Loucoumane Coulibaly and Saliou Samb | Reuters

ABIDJAN/CONAKRY, Nov 5 (Reuters) – For plenty of Africans, President Donald Trump’s actions in the aftermath of the U.S. election have been a cause for dark humour, but others have reacted with dismay or disbelief.

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Uncategorized

Nigeria’s #EndSARS protesters draw inspiration from Black Lives Matter

By Philip Obaji Jr. | USA TODAY

For weeks, young Nigerians rallying behind the hashtag #EndSARS have filled the streets of major cities across Nigeria demanding the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a police unit that has in recent years been publicly criticized for extortion of citizens, kidnappings, extrajudicial killings and illegal arrests.

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Uncategorized

Why everyone from Cardi B to Kanye West is speaking out against police brutality in Nigeria

By Kara Weisenstein | MIC

Protests against police brutality in Nigeria have gotten a big visibility boost from some famous faces in recent days, including Burna Boy, WizKid, John Boyega, Chance the Rapper, and Cardi B. They’re throwing their weight behind a movement that spilled from social media into the streets last week, as young Nigerians demand sweeping reform to corrupt law enforcement practices. While the government seemed to acquiesce over the weekend, protesters weren’t satisfied, and promised to keep applying pressure until real change was achieved.

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Uncategorized

As U.S. struggles, Africa’s covid-19 response is praised.

by CARA ANNA | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

At a lecture to peers this month, John Nkengasong showed images that once dogged Africa, with a magazine cover declaring it “The Hopeless Continent.” Then he quoted Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah: “It is clear that we must find an African solution to our problems, and that this can only be found in African unity.”

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Opinion

Why Black students should experience black life outside of the U.S.

By Devin Walker | Statesman

When I reflect on the Black Lives Matter movement and the many viral images that have galvanized protesters into action, my mind keeps going back to a disquieting video that did not result in belligerent shouting or bloodshed.

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Entertainment

7 African artists share their feelings on the glory — and missteps — of Beyoncé’s Black is King

By Amanda Parris  |  CBC

Of all the life-altering and terrifying changes that have occurred in 2020, one of the more fascinating shifts has been happening in celebrity culture. Stars have always been placed on a pedestal, and now that pedestal’s being shaken. 

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Immigration

USCIS announces massive increases in U.S. immigration fees

BY DANIEL SHOER ROTH | Miami Herald

The Trump administration announced on Friday an exorbitant increase in fees for some of the most common immigration procedures, including an 81% increase in the cost of U.S. citizenship for naturalization. It will also now charge asylum-seekers, which is an unprecedented move.

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Education

Starting in September, you can get a minor in Africana Studies at Brock – ThoroldNews.com

By: ThoroldNews Staff

Brock University students will have the opportunity to pursue a Minor in Africana Studies in addition to their degrees starting this September. The university says the program will bring a new and broad perspective in understanding the challenges faced by people of African descent.

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Appointments

United States appoints Damilola Ogunbiyi to Advisory Council of Development Finance Corporation

The United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) Board of Directors has approved the first members of the agency’s inaugural Development Advisory Council of which Nigeria’s Damilola Ogunbiyi is one.

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Opinion

Around the world, the U.S. has long been a symbol of anti-black racism

By Nana Osei-Opare  | The Washington Post

The extrajudicial killing of George Floyd has sparked days of unrest and protest around the United States. What is less well known but no less important is how this event has sparked massive anti-racism protests around the world, including in Nairobi, Lagos, London, Berlin, Toronto and most recently, Paris.

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Opinion

‘Soon he’ll be seen as threatening, not cute’: What it’s like to raise my black son in America

By Ifrah Udgoon | Mail & Guardian

As a Somali immigrant to America, I am expected to be grateful to be here. But have I sold my soul to the devil? Black mothers have much to fear when it comes to their children. American soil is saturated with the blood of black people: slavery, Jim Crow, mass incarceration and the war on drugs, and police brutality have ensured that black people know pain and loss intimately.

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Opinion

African immigrants struggle to find place in US

by Jaya Padmanabhan | San Francisco Examiner

In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s book “Americanah,” a young Nigerian woman, Ifemelu, comes to America and starts a blog about being a black person from another country. In one of her posts she writes, “Dear Non-American Black, when you make the choice to come to America, you become black. Stop arguing. Stop saying I’m Jamaican or I’m Ghanaian. America doesn’t care. So, what if you weren’t black in your country? You’re in America now.”

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Opinion

Remembering The Black Men And Immigrants Killed By US Police

By Felicia J. Persaud | News America Now

Like many, it was horrifying to watch the life of another black man – George Floyd, squeezed out of his body – literally – by a member of America’s Finest. And in a pandemic no less! But the harsh reality is, that since I moved to this country in 1996, I have lost count of the number of black and Latino men and immigrants killed by police without genuine cause.

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Opinion

African Diaspora and Disparities in Healthcare in the Age of COVID-19

By Grace A. Jibril | The Liberian Observer

What can we learn from the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing us to face about ourselves both culturally and socioeconomically across either side of the Atlantic? A comparative look at disparities in local healthcare provision America offers a revealing perspective.

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Uncategorized

Some Africans are stranded in the United States, with no way home or health insurance: ‘We’re just trapped’

By Danielle Paquette  | The Washington Post

She was supposed to stay in New York for a month, exploring the city and swapping business cards. Then the pandemic struck, and her country shuttered its airports. Now, Nuong Faalong, a broadcast journalist from Ghana, is trapped on a friend’s pullout couch.

“This is a terrible nightmare,” said Faalong, 33, who doesn’t have American health insurance — or any idea when she can leave.

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Opinion

Africa’s Billionaire Entrepreneurs Are Helping the Continent Battle the Covid 19 Challenge

By Ebimo Amungo

As Corona Virus ravages the world, straining health systems to creaking point in America, Italy, Spain, and countries considered advanced, the world watches with trepidation as the virus makes its way slowly, but surely, towards Africa. The World Health Organization and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have warned about the consequence of the virus taking hold in Africa. The prospects are dire for a continent with a dilapidated healthcare system and governments burdened with myriad fiscal and political challenges.

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Uncategorized

California to give cash payments to illegal immigrants hurt by virus

by ADAM BEAM | Associated Press

California will be the first state to give cash to immigrants living in the country illegally who are hurt by the coronavirus, offering $500 apiece to 150,000 adults who were left out of the $2.2 trillion stimulus package approved by Congress.

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Issues

Millions of taxpaying immigrants won’t get stimulus checks

by ASTRID GALVAN, PHILIP MARCELO and CLAUDIA TORRENS | Associated Press

The $2.2 trillion package that Congress approved to offer financial help during the coronavirus pandemic has one major exclusion: millions of immigrants who do not have legal status in the U.S. but work here and pay taxes. This includes a lot of African, Latino and Asian immigrants all across America

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Education

Sub-Saharan African Immigrants in the U.S. Are Often More Educated Than Those in Top European Destinations

Sub-Saharan immigrants in the United States are also more highly educated than U.S. native-born population

BY MONICA ANDERSON AND PHILLIP CONNOR | PEW RESEARCH CENTER

As the annual number of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to both the United States and Europe has grown for most years this decade, a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau and Eurostat data finds that sub-Saharan immigrants in the U.S. tend to be more highly educated than those living in the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Portugal – Europe’s historically leading destinations among sub-Saharan immigrants.

Read from source The African Immigrant

Immigration

The truth about Sub-Saharan African Immigrants in the United States

By Carlos Echeverria-Estrada and Jeanne Batalova|Migration Policy Institute

There were very few sub-Saharan Africans in the United States just a few decades ago, with under 150,000 residents in 1980. Since then, immigrants from some of the largest sub-Saharan countries, such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Somalia, and South Africa, have settled in the United States. Overall, more than 2 million immigrants have come from the 51 countries that comprise sub-Saharan Africa, making up 84 percent of the 2.4 million immigrants from the entire African continent. The remainder are from the six countries of North Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia.

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Remittance

The African Diaspora Network Gives Africans Living Abroad A Pathway To Invest At Home

By Meghan McCormick |Forbes

Global remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) grew by 10% to $46B in 2018 (the last year for which we have complete data from the World Bank). Remittances, or money sent as a gift typically from family members working in a high-income country to family members living in low- or middle-income countries, are an important part of the global economy. They account for more transfer of funds to SSA than aid from the top 10 donor countries and institutions. The money sent to Africa through remittances is actually larger than many African-country GDPs. Remittances would be the 12th most productive economy in SSA, just behind the Democratic Republic of the Congo and ahead of Côte d’Ivoire.

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Education

Ghanaian entrepreneur and Nigerian win MBA scholarship from Boston University

The Questroom School of Business at the prestigious Boston University, USA, has announced the winners of its Master of Business Administration (MBA) scholarship application for 2020-2021 academic year. The 100% tuition scholarship opportunity which is sponsored by Boston University was open to all Ghanaian and Nigerian citizens. Two outstanding applicants were awarded; Miss Helena Jennifer Afordoanyi from Ghana and Mr Olusegun Awobajo from Nigeria.

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