Why the United States needs African immigrants the most

It appears that African immigrants are among the hardest working people in the United States of America, contrary to suggestions by some government officials stateside that they are not.

According to a report on the work and job skill among immigrant groups in the U.S., Africans are generally more hardworking and highly skilled than immigrants from other parts of the world. Moreover, they are harder working than native Americans.

African countries listed in this group are Kenya (3rd), Ethiopia (4th), Nigeria (8th) and Liberia (9th). Ghanaians top the list as the hardest working people in the U.S.

The report also found that of the immigrant groups in U.S., Egyptians, Nigerians, and South Africans are among the most highly educated with more than half of their populations over the age of 25 having at least a bachelors degree.

The report was produced by Justin Fox, a renowned American financial journalist, for Bloomberg. Fox used the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2016 to produce his report in response to recent arguments by White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly. Kelly notably said the following about undocumented immigrants:

They’re overwhelmingly rural people in the countries they come from — fourth, fifth, sixth-grade educations are kind of the norm. They don’t speak English, obviously, that’s a big thing. They don’t speak English. They don’t integrate well, they don’t have skills. They’re not bad people. They’re coming here for a reason. And I sympathize with the reason. But the laws are the laws.

Fox believes that the argument about the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. is overblown and misguided. With 70% of all undocumented immigrants coming from mostly Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, many foreign-born people in the states are documented immigrants. Moreover, this group, Fox says, are highly skilled, hardworking, English-speaking, and ready to integrate into the United States’ “modern society”.

As Fox advises, “Want Educated Immigrants? Let In More Africans. Highly skilled? Check. Hardworking? Check. English-speaking? Check. Ready to integrate? Check.”