Foreword

Summary

This book outlines challenges faced by sub-Saharan African immigrants here presented in their voices. The researchers interviewed and had deep conversations with 25 immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa and present those conversations and their findings in the following chapters.

In Chapter 1, the authors introduce the problem statement of their research against the backdrop of African immigration trends and punitive United States immigration policies in a historical background of trade in enslaved Africans and current policies on the continent. The purpose of the study, its significance, scope, and the literature that was reviewed are also discussed.

The authors use Chapter 2 to discuss and reflect on the challenges of using phenomenology as a research design and maintaining unbiased interconnection as both researchers and objects of research, and still being able to give a voice to nameless and countless stories of sub-Saharan African immigrants in the United States. This phenomenological research chapter provides trends of immigration and valuable insights into the multifaceted stories of sub-Saharan Africans in the United States and their varied and personal stories of perseverance, courage, and survival strategies. This chapter details the procedure used to conduct research for this book and the challenges the researchers encountered while taking on the double role of researcher and participant.

Among the many challenges the sub-Saharan African immigrants face is the issue of being viewed as different yet expected to assimilate and behave as an American. To delve deeper into the identity crises that many African immigrants are experiencing, the authors use Chapter 3 to discuss the issue of translanguaging and code switching, which is a common communication and coping style among most plurilinguals. It also deals with the difficult reality of the lack of validation that many immigrants feel in the United States. Indeed, the authors’ research shows that many of the respondents feel like their lived experiences are being discounted, just because they are different.

In Chapter 4, the authors introduce identity issues by exploring how sub- Saharan African immigrants perceive and define success. The major reason cited for immigrating was education, which was also perceived as a definition of as well as a criterion of success.

Chapter 5 delves deeper into the challenges of coming to the United States and being confronted by issues of race, national narratives adopted to describe all peoples of color, and discrimination along color lines.