Overview

African immigration to the United States has grown rapidly over the past three decades with more than 1.5 million sub-Saharan Africans now residing in the United States. Close to 10,000 African immigrants (and their American-born children) live today in the metropolitan centers of Kansas City, Lawrence, Topeka, Emporia, Wichita, and Garden City. These recent demographic changes have particular resonance in the Midwest where increasing numbers of non-traditional migrant groups, including Latinos, Asians, and Africans, now live in communities that are often unaccustomed to large groups of migrants of non-European origin. For although the U.S. celebrates itself as a nation of immigrants, recent immigration is perhaps not as clearly understood as that of earlier periods of our history. Long-term residents are, as such, left without a clear sense of who these new arrivals are and how to include them within the larger local community.

Migration Stories seeks to gather stories in various forms about both the experience of immigration for Africans and the impact of changing demographics for Midwestern communities. Throughout our history, personal stories have played a crucial role in defining what it means to be American and in illuminating the meaning of America as a country. For immigrants, stories are a way to integrate themselves into the narrative of the nation even as their stories of migration change that narrative. For those who are a part of host communities, stories about migration are a way to understand the place of new arrivals in their midst, and a way to transform our ideas about what it means to be American.

Image credit: Tanya Hartman, Icons From a Broken World. Atem Akuei (left), Icons From a Broken World. Rebecca Kothis Kuany Mabior (right)

News

Sharing Migration Stories in Midwestern Communities. NEH for All Communities. https://nehforall.org/projects/sharing-migration-stories-in-midwestern-communities