Past scholarship on immigrant racial and ethnic identity construction tends to ignore the processes by which social context influences identity at the individual level. In this qualitative study, Janet T. Awokoya presents a complex understanding of 1.5- and second-generation African immigrant youths’ identities. Awokoya explores how three major contexts—family, school, and peer groups—affect the ways in which African immigrant youth construct and negotiate their racial and ethnic identities. Further, she contends that the ways in which African immigrant youth are expected to conform to ideals of what it means to be African, Nigerian, African American, and Black, which dramatically shift across contexts, significantly confound the racial and ethnic identity constructions and negotiations for these youth. The article concludes with a discussion of practical and theoretical implications for identity development among Black immigrant youth.

Despite the significant increase of African-born immigrants in the United States of America, the education system does not recognize their presence and does little to facilitate their integration through the implementation of necessary curricular adjustments. The purpose of this article is to call on multicultural education advocates to endorse the argument for the distinctness of Africanborn immigrants as a complex cultural group with unique vulnerabilities requiring sensitivity. Organizationally, the paper develops four key points: the current demographic representation of the African population; the absence of African voices in multicultural education scholarship; the salience of multicultural education advocacy in recognizing the essence of African cultures in the western world; and the minimal coverage of African topics in the U.S. curriculum. Two sets of recommendations, curricular and culture-oriented, conclude the argument. Despite the recent increase of African-born immigrants in the United States of America (Hamza, 2005), their presence is poorly reflected in curricular decisions and educational planning in the U.S. school system. Oftentimes, the efforts of school officials to acknowledge African students yield minimal effect and superficial understanding among American-born educators and peers. Due to the absorption of African immigrant populations into the larger context of the black race (Arthur, 2000), little is known about their histories, their cultures, and their achievements. African-born children or children of African-born parents in the western world are disadvantaged by the manner in which African cultures and people have been portrayed in western-authored textbooks and by the western media. This paper is a response to the minority cultures from sub-Saharan Africa, who seldom feel recognized or given the opportunity to affirm themselves in the U.S. context, particularly in the educational arena. After examining the American education curriculum vis-à-vis immigrant minorities from non-predominant cultures, like Africans, a twofold argument emerged.

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This chapter presents research implications geared toward preventing the downward assimilation trend prevailing among young African immigrants in US public schools. Secondary data from three qualitative studies of integration and adaptation processes of African-born immigrant youth in urban school settings helped identify signs of downward assimilation, especially among males. Salient signs of this trend include low academic achievement, gang inclination, and defiance towards authority. Four major theories—segmented assimilation, socio-ecological theory, intersectionality, and critical race theory—served as framework for the analysis of the risk factors that may lead young African immigrants to follow the downward assimilation path. The analysis reveals the need for intervention measures at the federal, state, and school levels to reduce the vulnerability of non-predominant minority youth in US school settings and the moral responsibility of school authorities to ensure their welfare. Recommended preventive measures include (1) educating immigrant families and school communities; (2) encouraging collaboration and dialogue between African community organizations, school administration, and policymakers purported at creating a favorable school climate for the marginalized African immigrant youth; (3) increasing intervention measures, such as school-community mediation and political representation.