Black immigrants moving into a neighborhood can help shift the overall racial and ethnic character of the area, a new study suggests.
A researcher from The Ohio State University found that when Black immigrants move into a majority native-Black neighborhood, there is an increase in the white population moving in while native Black residents move out.
"Blackness can't be treated as a monolith within the United States today, where there is a growing Black immigrant population," said Nima Dahir, author of the study and assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State.
"There is a lot of complexity within Black people and Black neighborhoods in the United States."
The study was published online recently in the journal RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences.
Dahir used data from the 2000 U.S. Census and the 2008-2012 and 2016-2020 American Community Surveys to test how an influx of Black immigrants changes the racial composition of most census tracts (or neighborhoods) in the United States.
By the end of the study period, 20% of Black people in the United States were either immigrants or had at least one foreign-born parent.
Findings showed that in 2000, the majority of Black immigrants (60%) lived in neighborhoods with a considerable (more than 20%) native-born Black share of residents.
But neighborhoods changed after Black immigrants began moving in.
The study showed that in neighborhoods in which Black Americans were a majority in 2000, there was a relative increase of 110 non-Hispanic whites with every 100-person increase in Black immigrants in an earlier period. Meanwhile, there was a decrease of 94 native-born Black persons on average in these neighborhoods.
Dahir gave the example of a neighborhood in Minneapolis that was home to more than 70% native-born Black residents in 2000, with nearly no foreign-born Black people.
By 2020, Black immigrants constituted nearly 10% of the neighborhood and the non-Hispanic white population had grown to nearly 20%, while the native-born Black population had dropped to 39%. The Asian population was 13%.
"Overall, it is still basically a Black neighborhood, but the racial and ethnic character has transformed as Black immigrants have moved in," she said.
Why does an influx of Black immigrants cause other Black people to leave the neighborhood?
The study found that as more Black immigrants move in, there tends to be an increase in rents and home values in the neighborhood. That may make the area less affordable to other Black residents and force them to leave, she said.
Dahir said this study didn't look at this question directly, but native-born Blacks may also desire to maintain their own neighborhoods.
"Treating Black immigrants and Black Americans as one group doesn't deal with the ethnic differences between the two groups," she said.
"Black Americans may want to find neighborhoods where they are still well-represented."
Still, Black immigrants play what is called a "buffering" role, allowing greater integration between Black and white residents, Dahir said.
When Black immigrants move into a white neighborhood, it reduces the likelihood of white flight and facilitates the entrance of native-born Black Americans, the study found.
The data can't show why white Americans are more likely to move into Black neighborhoods after an influx of Black immigrants or why there is less white flight from a neighborhood when Black immigrants arrive, Dahir said.
But she believes it has to do with the "deep racial hierarchy that we have in the United States."
Black immigrants may sidestep the anti-Blackness, racism and discrimination faced by native-born Black people because of their status as immigrants, Dahir said.
And research in sociology suggest that white gentrifiers have developed tastes for diversity and authenticity that are often linked to immigrants.
"In this case, the ethnicity of Black immigrants may become more salient than their race," she said.
Dahir said her upcoming research will explore this topic in greater detail. She is looking at one city to see how businesses such as restaurants established by Black immigrants may attract more racial diversity.
"These new businesses may be the signal that the neighborhood is changing its ethnic character even if its racial character stays the same," she said.
