US immigration from Africa reaches new highs

The Times article says that more blacks are coming from Africa than during the forced immigration from the slave trade. In New York, 1 in 3 blacks are foreign born. When people here (in Europe) ask me what I miss the most about the US, it's the diversity. Sure we have diverse groups here in Europe and of course, in the US we struggle with integration and racism but ultimately, we are a collection of immigrants and that is a uniting factor. One big difference is that in the US, immigrants can get an education, find good jobs, become politicians, etc. and move up.

Europeans love to charge Americans with racism, which does exist, but all too often people here overlook the limited options for education, work (beyond custodial positions, when available) and political representation for immigrants and even second and third generation immigrants from Africa here in Europe. Just last night I spoke with an otherwise liberal-minded European couple who explained that a 99.9% white event called the Conscrit was not racist even though the local community is heavily populated by former North Africans. "It's not racism, it's cultural" was the response. Outside of the the usual racist groups, can you imagine the response that such a remark would receive in the US among educated people?