Lessons from a Century of Black Migration

Moderated by Ruud Koopmans

Using data capturing more than a century of black migration, in this lecture, Tod Hamilton argues that despite the legislative achievements of the civil rights movement, the social position of black Americans continues to bear the residual effects of discriminatory state and federal policies dating back to slavery in the United States. While contemporary forms of discrimination and racism hinder the social outcomes of both black Americans and black immigrants, he highlights that some groups of black immigrants who migrated to the United States after 1965 may have better outcomes than black Americans because of positive patterns of selective migration and because they migrated to the United States during a period of expanding opportunities for minorities and women: the post-civil rights era.

Tod G. Hamilton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and a Faculty Associate of the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. His research interests are in the field of demography, with an emphasis on immigration and health.

Ruud Koopmans is Director of the WZB Research Unit Migration, Integration, Transnationalization.

The lecture is part of the WZB Distinguished Lectures in Social Sciences.