Over the past thirty years, more Africans have come voluntarily to the United States than came during the entire era of the transatlantic slave trade, which transported an estimated half million men, women, and children to these shores. But this contemporary migration - although larger in strictly numerical terms, and concentrated over a much shorter period - forms only a trickle in the total stream of immigrants to the United States.

Nevertheless, small as it still is today, the African community has been steadily and rapidly increasing. Sub-Saharan Africans have recently acquired a high level of visibility in many cities. Close-knit, attached to their cultures, and quick to seize the educational and professional opportunities of their host country, African immigrants have established themselves as one of the most dynamic and entrepreneurial groups in the country.

The New African Diaspora by Sylviane A. Diouf, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture