Immigration tensions in the new Boston

Matthew MacLean

In 1971, an editorial cartoon published in a New York African American newspaper depicted a beleaguered-looking black man bent over on the ground, with a line of Latino and Asian immigrants climbing up over his back in order to pick fruit from the tree of opportunity.

That cartoon came six years after Congress, largely in response to the black civil rights movement, passed landmark legislation that abolished national origin-based restrictions in U.S. immigration policy. And it came just days after the Census Bureau announced that, for the first time, Hispanic Americans were earning higher income than blacks.

Resentment among African Americans toward immigrants is nothing new, but the current debate on immigration reform has brought the issue back up to a boil. Some African Americans have counter-demonstrated at pro-immigration rallies — especially in Los Angeles, where the ever-growing Latino influx is perceived to be causing a decrease in the black population. Others have joined the ranks of the Minutemen activists on the U.S.-Mexican border, taking it upon themselves to hunt for illegal border-crossers.

Boston is about as far as one can get from the Mexican border, yet the immigration debate here is no less impassioned. In Boston, however, immigration looks different than it does out west.

According to the most recent census records, Brazilians make up the largest group of immigrants in Massachusetts, with West Indians from Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic accounting for three of the top four ethnicities in the city of Boston. In a word, many of Boston’s immigrants are black.

This fact makes for a unique relationship between African Americans and immigrants.

Earlier this month, a panel discussion was held by Freedom House, a nonprofit with deep roots in the city that aims to nurture the economic and social development of Boston’s communities of color. Titled “Immigration, migration: Following the jobs,” the event intended to help educate the public about the lives of immigrants, but it often touched on the state of relations between immigrants and the African American community.

“Freedom House is in a unique position to address this issue because we have history working with both communities,” explained Freedom House executive director Ricardo Neal, himself a native Jamaican immigrant. “We’ve also felt the brunt of the shift in population from mostly African American to an increasing percentage of immigrant blacks.”

Neal believes that similarities between the two groups have helped Boston avoid many of the animosities and conflicts experienced by other American cities — particularly the gang violence that plagues Los Angeles. And the city’s smaller size and more condensed neighborhoods do not allow for much segregation.

“We can walk just a few blocks to Jamaica Plain, and we’re in the Dominican neighborhood,” Neal said. “We all live together, and our children attend the same schools.” This gives native African Americans and immigrants common cause to work together to solve problems faced by both, like underperforming schools, crime and access to affordable health care.

At the discussion, panelist Lunine Pierre-Jerome, a Haitian immigrant who works with student literacy and language acquisition in the Boston public schools, pointed out that for Boston’s black immigrants, the issue is even more critical.

“Within just two or three generations, we will no longer be Haitians,” she said. “We will become African Americans ourselves.”

In a later interview, Pierre-Jerome elaborated.

“I can see it in my own son,” she said. “When he became a teenager, the African American world became much more attractive to him than his [Haitian] roots. As time goes by, there will be less and less difference between us, so it’s in our best interests to help each other.”

Her comments were echoed in those of a group of women at a Mattapan beauty salon last week.

“It’s like, our destinies are intertwined,” said Judy Warren, an African American health care worker who resides in Dorchester.

“We have Jamaicans and other Caribbean people that come to our church. There are even some Haitians that come, even though they’re Catholic. They say they like our services because they’re more lively,” she laughed. “They share their music with us too, and their food. There are differences, yes, but we’re all members of the same community, and there’s more that unites us than what divides us.”

Marina Evora-Green, a Cape Verdean homemaker from Mattapan who is married to an African American man, said different cultures can merge very quickly.

“My kids are American, not Cape Verdean,” she said, pointing to her 13-year-old son Samuel who sat quietly in a corner of the room. The boy was dressed in long, baggy shorts and bright red basketball shoes, with a stylized Red Sox cap.

“The way they dress, and the music they like. Oh gosh! We have the hip-hop music playing all the time at our house.”

But there are still some tensions between the groups, even in Boston. Just two blocks from the salon, Jerome Harris, a construction worker from Hyde Park, expressed some resentment at the recent pro-immigrant political demonstrations.

“I don’t have anything against immigrants, because in America we are all immigrants. But those people are parading around acting like we owe them something. We don’t owe them anything,” Harris said. “And don’t tell me that [immigrants] don’t take jobs from African Americans, cause I’ve seen it.”

Harris pointed to his own construction company, where he said the number of native African Americans has dropped to less than half of what it was 10 years ago, and there has been a corresponding increase of what he believes are illegal migrant workers.

“Where are all those [African American] men working now?” he asked. “They’re not in management, I can tell you that.”

A study conducted in Los Angeles of six industries traditionally favored by African Americans, including hotels, restaurants and hospitals, found that while between 1970 and 1990 there was a large expansion of these industries and also a dramatic decrease of white workers, African Americans increased their representation in only two of the six, actually decreasing in three. A large influx of Latino and Asian immigrants filled the rest.

Pro-immigrant activists suggest population shifts and other possible reasons for such declines, and point to other studies that show no significant job loss among African Americans to immigration. Ana Amaral, an organizer at Jobs With Justice, said she believes it is all a myth.

“That’s what the white people say, because they want to divide us,” Amaral said. “[Immigrants] are not taking the African American jobs. In reality there should be plenty of jobs.”

Amaral said she often finds herself fighting against such notions, as in her efforts to unionize 6,000 workers at a North Carolina meat processing plant, half of which are African Americans and the other half mostly undocumented immigrants. So far, her efforts to unite the workers have failed.

Pierre-Jerome pointed to Boston schools as places where tensions can be seen. She said some schools have a history of violence between African American and immigrant students, evidenced in a recent incident where three Haitian girls were attacked and beaten by a group of African American girls because they were holding hands — a common practice among young school girls in Haiti.

“African American young people are often not educated enough about cultural differences. We need after school programs and other activities to promote inclusion,” Pierre-Jerome said. “We all have the same mother: Africa.”

Most everyone at the panel discussion at Freedom House agreed on the need to work together on common challenges. But several immigrants in the audience expressed frustration in finding a way to communicate this to their African American neighbors.

“We haven’t found the solutions yet, but meanwhile we need to continue the dialogue,” said Neal, who said Freedom House is planning another panel for October where the particular issue of African American and immigrant relations will be discussed in greater depth. “The current population shift is only going to continue, so it will become more and more urgent to find ways to work together and avoid conflict.”

Jeanne Rasata contributed to this story.