How Black Immigrants Transform the Urban Demographic Landscape

A new study from Nima Dahir, assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State University, has found an influx of Black immigrants moving into Black neighborhoods is associated with increases in the area’s White population and decreases in the native African American population.

Using data from the United States Census and the American Community Survey, Dr. Dahir found that, by 2020, the majority of Black immigrants in the United States lived in neighborhoods where at least one fifth of the population were native-born Black Americans.

Among communities in which Black Americans represented the majority population in the year 2000, there was a relative increase of 110 White residents and a decrease of 94 native-born Black residents for every relative increase of 100 Black immigrants. Furthermore, Dr. Dahir found that when a neighborhood experienced an influx of Black immigrants from 2000 to 2020, rent prices and home values in the area tended to increase.

In contrast, Dr. Dahir found that when Black immigrants move into predominately White neighborhoods, the likelihood of “White flight” reduces and the neighborhood experiences an increase in native-born Black residents. She believes this suggests Black immigrants can act as a “buffer” for Black-White integration, preceding the arrival of native-born Black residents into White neighborhoods, and vice versa.

“Immigrant status appears to transform the racialized hierarchies in residential patterns, thus challenging sociological notions of a monolithic Blackness,” writes Dr. Dahir. “In addition, the differential behaviors of White households in reaction to Black native and Black immigrant in-migration make the particular contours of racism upholding racialized spatial inequality clearer. Perceived nativity may moderate how and where anti-Black racism is manifest, thus clarifying how spatial inequality and segregation for Black native-born people is maintained.”

Dr. Dahir believes future research in this area should delve into the nuances of particular cities and neighborhoods, as certain areas of the United States have different historical, political, and social contexts. She also believes there should be further investigation into where native-born Black residents who leave historically Black neighborhoods move to, providing more insight “into the costs of neighborhood change and the landscape of future inequality for Black native-born people.”

Dr. Dahir is a summa cum laude graduate of Ohio State University, where she double-majored in mathematics and economics. She earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. in sociology from Stanford University in California.

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