ABSTRACT
Based on discourses in the media and recent research, it could be surmised that Black women from immigrant families are particularly likely to enter and graduate from college. Black women are generally described as successful, and they have consistently represented two thirds of Black bachelor’s degree recipients for the past two decades (Harper, 2013; National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2012). A similar narrative has been crafted about Black students from immigrant backgrounds (George Mwangi, 2014; George Mwangi and Fries-Britt, 2015). Researchers have identified steady increases in the number of Black college students who were born in other countries (first generation) or are the children of immigrants (second generation), and data suggests that they are overrepresented within the Black college-going population (Bennett and Lutz, 2009; Kent, 2007; Massey, Mooney, Torres, and Charles, 2007). For example, Black immigrants represent approximately 40.6 percent of Black students in the Ivy League, yet compose less than 15 percent of the population of Blacks in the United States (Massey et al., 2007).
