RATIONALE AND IMPACT OF UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION POLICIES ON AFRICA AND AFRICANS IN DIASPORA

Abstract

Immigration is increasingly preoccupying governments, politicians, policy makers and citizens of the Global North. For the most part, the focus has been on the security and economic impacts and social integration of migrants. The United States remains a country greatly shaped by generations of immigrants and their descendants. The U.S. for generations welcomed large immigrants, and oftentimes secures productive employment and successfully integrates them into its population. However, the U.S. immigration law has come under reforms in recent times, especially as its Janus faced stance in handling immigrants has had serious consequences for her global standing. Thus, immigration which has been one of America's great success stories is losing its popularity. This paper addresses the challenges arising from the impacts of the U.S. migration policies on immigrants especially Africans. The study is qualitative and adopts the rational choice theory as it offers a framework for understanding and often formally modelling social and economic behaviour. The paper finds that while immigration has paid direct benefits for the United States, especially her global leadership, recent U.S. administrations’ immigration policies and their impacts on Africa and Diaspora Africans have captured little attention from scholarship in the Third World. The paper fills this lacuna by examining the U.S. immigration policies of George Walker Bush, Barak Obama to Donald Trump presidencies on Africa.