Priority Africa Network hostes regular meetings with diverse representatives of African immigrant community leaders in the Bay Area for networking and information sharing. The meetings provide leaders with an opportunity to learn of one anothers' work, exploring commonalities in the challenges they face and finding opportunities for collaboration. For more information on these meetings or to join us, please email PriorityAfrica@yahoo.com or call our office at (510) 663 2255.
African Immigrants and Census 2010
Census counting has already started. We don't want African immigrants
to be left out of the picture.
Join PAN as we mobilize to ensure all people born in Africa and currently
living in the U.S. are counted.
Census Bureau is hiring. Persons who speak languages from different African countries are especially encouraged to apply. You can get more information and apply online...............click here
Support Deferred Enforced Departure Status (DED) for Liberians in the U.S.
On the morning of April 1st 2010, nearly four thousand Liberian nationals will wake up and find their right to stay in the U.S. has been revoked. They will be separated from their families and loved ones and lose their jobs and homes. We cannot let this happen!
Call-in to President Obama on Wednesday, March 10 & Everyday until March 31st!!
White House Comment Line: 202-456-1111
letters, so urge your representative to do so.
Brief history of African migration to the U.S
Global migration has doubled over the past 25 years. The UN estimates there
are over 200 million people living outside their countries of birth. According to the
African Union, nearly 1/3 of these are Africans. Africans make up the highest
number of displaced persons in the world.
What does this mean for Africans in the US ? According to the last US Census of
2000, there are approximately 1.7 million people in the US who claim Africa their
region of birth. The number of African immigrants in the US has increased several
fold over the past decade and a half. Consider this: in the two decade between
1960 and 1980, the number of Africans in the US was estimated at 110,000.
Over the next twenty years of 1980 to 2000 however, the number increased to over
530,000.
Bringing it closer to the Bay Area – the numbers for California are the following:
Total CA population is 35 million, approximately 9.6 million are foreign born, of which approx. 185,000 are Africa born.
The Bay Area has a high percentage of African immigrants. In San Francisco and especially Oakland, there are restaurants, hair salons, arts and crafts shops visible all over the cities. African professionals work in various city, university/college and corporate offices, and families living and attending schools in the inner cities and suburbs of the Greater Bay Area. Alameda County has the highest number of African immigrant residents in California following Los Angeles County.
For more detailed facts and figures of recent African migration to the U.S. visit the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, “In Motion”
The need to organize and build connected communities
There are as many African immigrant groups as there are countries and ethnic identities. Some are formally organized with California tax exemption status and offices, others less so, but organized just the same and meeting regularly.
The communities provide essential services to members, many of which remain unknown and un-acknowledged by Bay Area social services, elected officials and the public at large. Immigrant community associations provide information on housing, employment, health, education, transport and social/cultural rituals that immigrants depend on. They also facilitate as interpreters of language and conduits of cultural understanding without which many new immigrants would be highly disadvantaged.
Priority Africa Network mobilizes leadership of such communities to focus on the need of building the capacity, increase visibility and engagement in civic activities. We do so by providing information to community groups on activities and opportunities in the Bay Area they may benefit from:
1. hold capacity building forums where African immigrant community groups may access information on organization building, accessing funding, leadership training and networking.
2. conducting African Diaspora Dialogues to build cultural alliances and solidarity between African immigrants and African Americans
3. Opportunities for civic engagement and voter registration where African immigrants can be seen and heard on issues of immigration reform, living wages, housing, school board, etc.
Our work is supported by the following - THANK YOU !
the P.A.N Community &
