America needs more African immigrants
This NBA season, the Milwaukee Bucks’ most memorable game was only the third game of the year. Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo led a furious comeback against the Portland Trailblazers, ending in a victory and a career-high 44 points.
But the game itself was only half the story. Back in the locker room, Giannis’ teammates handed him the game ball. The 22-year-old star took a black permanent marker and began writing on the ball.
“This is for Daddy we got a win tonight and I got 44 points,” he wrote.
Giannis’ father, Charles, had died just three weeks earlier.
In 1991, Charles and Veronica Antetokounmpo fled Nigeria for Greece, where Giannis was born in 1994. Charles settled the family in a neighborhood just north of Athens where the Antetokounmpos were the only black family for several blocks. While Giannis’ parents struggled to find work, the future NBA star and his brothers famously sold watches, bags and sunglasses on the street to be able to afford food.
Such is the immigrant experience upon which the president of the United States cast aspersions last week. At a meeting with lawmakers in the Oval Office, Donald Trump wondered aloud why America accepts so many people from “shithole countries” like Haiti or those in Africa, reportedly expressing a preference for immigrants from places like Norway.
While much of the derision has been focused on Trump’s use of profanity, his true transgression is believing certain countries are less desirable because of the type of people who live there.
It’s the same type of bigotry faced by the Antetokounmpos after Charles and Veronica moved to Greece, when abuse against black immigrants gained intensity after the country’s economy collapsed and competition for jobs grew. Even after the Bucks drafted Giannis in 2013, an extreme-right Greek politician compared the new NBA player to a “chimpanzee” and said his family should have been ordered to a detention center.
Trump is clueless about the value immigrants from African countries bring to America. They most often bring strong families, a tireless work ethic and a love for America unmatched even by citizens born here.
Additionally, many African immigrants bring the brainpower America needs to remain the world’s leader in innovation. Nigerian immigrants make up about 0.7% of America’s black population but make up around 10% of the nation’s black physicians.
Smarts and work ethic translate into higher incomes. In 2014, nearly 25% of Nigerian-American households made more than $100,000 a year. That year, the median Nigerian-American household income was $58,000, compared with the national median of $51,000.
Of course, not every native Nigerian immigrant can be a 7-foot-tall athlete like Giannis Antetokounmpo. But they can be as dedicated, family-oriented and hardworking as he is. Without his mother and father breaking free and seeking better fortunes, America might have missed out on its most precocious, winsome athlete.
In 2016, Giannis signed a new four-year, $100 million contract. He could end up making more money than any athlete in American history. Then Donald Trump will be able to see what a genuine billionaire looks like.