Adida Robinson 2023

MAIN IDEA The journal documents studies of Black immigrants selectively claiming the identity of US-born African Americans to protect against the racial discrimination of groups who have assimilated into American culture and the history of racism. This article follows the posed differences between black immigrants and US-born African Americans inferencing that there are incentives for one to separate oneself for economic reasons. This study follows the assimilation of Black immigrants and analyzes the reasoning behind their decisions.

Main Argument: The author argues that different immigrants face different likelihoods of being racially lumped with members of the marginalized host community, and therefore face different incentives to reify their ethnic identities as protection from race-based discrimination. They look for factors that cause Black immigrants to resist assimilation. The themes of this study reinforce the intertwined importance of cultural identity and cultural change.

Assimilation:

The study uses 3 empirical approaches to create their argument

• qualitative interview data from 1st and 2nd generation immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa to demonstrate that not all African immigrants are equally likely to be mistaken for African Americans,

This shows the complexities of Black immigrants' experiences

• A Lab experiment to identify the demographic correlates of African immigrants being mistaken for African Americans.

Finding that Black immigrants from the Horn of Africa are less likely to be mistaken as African Americans than immigrants from different regions in Africa

• A focus group discussions and original survey data from Somali immigrants, between ethnic Somali and Bantus who have distinct features comparing the likelihood of being mistaken for African American

They found Bantus are more likely to be mistaken for African Americans than Somalis