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Nigerians, Most Educated In US
Dr. Ken and his wife Elizabeth share about 20 years of college education between them, from his years of medical college in Nigeria, specialist training in Europe and United States to her Bachelors and master's degree training in science and computer information systems. They are the face of modern Nigerian immigrants in the United States contributing positively to the growth of the nation that has witnessed a rise in the number of African immigrants since the mid-1970s.
Like this young couple, about 61 percent of Nigerian immigrants in United States hold at least a bachelor's degree or higher. According to US Census Bureau's American Community Survey report published in late 2014, about 96 percent of Nigerian-born Immigrants in United States surveyed between 2008 and 2012 have a minimum of a high school education. Of this number, 34.7 percent graduated high school or have some college education while 60.9 percent have at least a Bachelor's degree.
With these numbers, Nigeria outranks immigrants from other parts of the world in educational attainment. The Census figures indicate that “compared with the overall foreign-born population, the foreign-born from Africa had higher levels of educational attainment.”
Following Nigeria in Educational attainment are immigrants from Egypt with 95 percent holding at least a high school, bachelor's degree or higher. South Africans also rank high with at least 57 percent holding a bachelor's degree or higher. About 47.2 percent of Kenya-born and 35 percent of Ghana-born immigrants have at least a bachelor's degree or higher.
Compared to all foreign born in United States, the Census Bureau reports that only about 27.6 percent of other foreign born including European whites have a bachelor's degree or higher while at least 47.5 percent of all African-born immigrants hold a bachelor's degree or more.
The bureau explains this data distribution in favor of Africa as a reflection of how these immigrants entered the United States. The Bureau states that “a relatively high proportion of immigrants from Africa entered the united States on diversity visas (24 percent as compared with 5 percent of overall foreign-born) which require a high school diploma or equivalent work experience.”
The exception to this being immigrants from Somalia who mostly entered the US as refugees due to the crisis in their country.
The survey also noted that between the periods in reference, close to 40 million foreign-born people resided in the United States, of which 1.6 million were from Africa. Of this figure, Nigerians constituted about 221,000. In contrast, only about 80,000 foreign-born lived in the US in 1970.
According to the report, the jump in African population in the US began after 1990 due to various factors including political and economic developments in African countries as well as factors such as visa restrictions in Europe and the quest for American Education. Also a factor contributing to influx of African immigrants was the US Immigration ACT of 1965 “which replaced the national origin quota system favoring immigration from Europe with a new law prioritizing skilled labor, family unification and humanitarianism.”
@Nigeria Media In Diaspora