Black immigrant stories offer a window into the complex and often ruptured lives black immigrants inhabit as strangers in a new land. Storytelling has been a powerful tool in the immigrant rights movement through its focus on the human side of the matter.
As the national conversation around immigration grows, there is a continued need to expand our collective understanding of black immigrant experiences. On blackness, belonging, challenges, and persistence, here are five books — fiction and non-fiction — representing the multi-faceted lives of Black immigrants.
1. Illegal Among Us: A Stateless Woman’s Quest for Citizenship by Martine Kalaw (non-fiction)
There are an estimated 12 million stateless people in the world, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. A stateless person is someone who is not recognized as a citizen of any country. Born in Zambia to Congolese parents, and without documentation for either country, Martine Kalaw is the embodiment of the term stateless.
Kalaw was put through a seven-year battle, fighting for U.S. citizenship and against deportation to the Democratic Republic of Congo. She was taken from courtroom to courtroom, and even through the halls of Congress, advocating for the Dream Act. Her journey is ultimately one of discovery about many self-truths.
2. Undocumented: A Dominican Boy’s Odyssey From A Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League by Dan-el Padilla Peralta (non-fiction)
Peralta’s memoir Undocumented charts his journey from homelessness to becoming a Princeton graduate. From Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, Peralta and his family arrived in the U.S. seeking medical assistance for his mother. Determined to build a better life for her family, his mother chose to settle herself and two sons in New York. With a little help, Peralta’s love of books opened a world of new opportunities.
3. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue (fiction)
The financial crisis of 2008 reshaped many lives. As for Cameroonian immigrants Jende and Neni Jonga, life in New York was already challenging enough as they struggled to make ends meet. The small family hit a new stride when Jende lands a position as a driver for an executive of investment banking company Lehman Brothers, while Neni finds short term work cleaning and cooking in the home. Between Neni’s dream of pharmacy school and Jende's less than factual asylum case, the financial crisis adds an additional layer of problems to their fragile world.
4. Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn (fiction)
While many immigrants look to the United States as a means of making a better life for their families back home, Dennis-Benn’s Patsy follows the journey of a woman who sought to remake a life for herself. Leaving behind her five-year-old daughter Tru, Patsy — a Jamaican immigrant — moved to New York to reconnect with her love, and childhood best friend, Cicely. Tru’s life back in Jamaica and Patsy’s unexpected disappointment culminates to highlight intersections of black womanhood and immigration too often ignored.
5. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie (fiction)
Race and foreignness are central to the experiences of Nigerian immigrants Ifemelu and Obinze in Americanah. Ifemelu leaves behind her family and boyfriend Obinze when she moves to the United States for school. She often feels like an outsider in many circles. Her dealings with love, struggling to find employment, and particularly her grappling with blackness, find a home in what becomes her popular blog posts.
As for Obinze, his experiences as an undocumented immigrant in London greatly contrasts with his upbringing back home. As much as immigrant narratives are about people who leave their homes, Americanah reminds us the circumstances and choices which take them back are also worthy tales.
