Black migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers live at the intersection of forced global migration, racism, displacement from their countries, violence and civil war, and climate change. LGBTQ Black migrants face additional challenges due to homophobia and transphobia in countries they are fleeing, en route, and upon arrival in the United States. Black migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers bear the brunt of historical exclusion from political power and funding and are not always reflected in the needs of the broader immigrant justice space.

How to support the Black-led migrant ecosystem?

It’s time for our philanthropic community to lean into its potential in resourcing and growing the Black-led migrant and racial justice movement ecosystem. This ecosystem has played a transformational role for the larger gender, racial, and climate justice movements. However, they have not been meaningfully resourced. Our collective priority is to resource the ecosystem with two-year general operating support grants. Receiving rapid response and project-specific funding is important to organize impactfully in the short term. However, organizations are in urgent need of multi-year general operating support to ensure stability to plan for power building and long-term systemic change. The organizations are working with community members to surface issues and lead the policy fights that directly impact their lives.

List of today’s participating Black-led organizations 

  • African Bureau for Immigration and Social Affairs (ABISA): ABISA promotes social and economic justice, civic participation & empowerment of Blvck/African immigrants and refugees.
  • African Communities Together: African Communities Together is an organization of African immigrants fighting for civil rights, opportunity, and a better life for families here in the U.S. and worldwide.
  • The AfroResistance team is a dedicated group of advocates committed to realizing the organization's vision and securing the human rights of people of African descent. With the support of extraordinary activists around the world, we foster and deepen ties of international political solidarity to support racial justice movements in the Americas.
  • Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI): BAJI believes that a thriving multiracial democracy requires racial, social, and economic justice for all.
  • Black Immigrant Collective (BIC) was founded in January 2017. Minnesota has a diverse and large immigrant population, and yet almost always the stories and racial experiences of Black immigrants are erased or overlooked in Minnesota’s immigrant and racial justice movements. BIC is also a
  • Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project (BLMP): Led by a directly impacted steering committee and staff and fiscally sponsored by the Transgender Law Center, BLMP builds power, community, and knowledge in the U.S., while challenging the role the U.S. plays globally in creating the conditions that force them to leave their homes. 
  •  Family Action Network Movement (FANM): FANM has provided an array of social services while also organizing around issues such as immigration, housing, health access, education reform, gender equity, gentrification, climate justice and human rights. 
  • Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA): Haitian organizers came together in 2016 and founded Haitian Bridge Alliance when Haitian migrants began arriving in the U.S. seeking asylum and have grown its work to include document translation and preparation, passport and identification facilitation, immigration legal assistance, resume and work preparation, and uplifting the marginalized voices of Black migrants, and particularly LGBTQ+. 
  • Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees (HWHR): HWHR provides services, community education, leadership development, advocacy, and community organizing to support Haitian refugees, immigrants, and asylum seekers. 
  • Louisiana Organization for Refugees and Immigrants (LORI) is a nonprofit organization founded by refugees, asylees, and vulnerable immigrants who fled their homes because of fear of persecution, war, or natural disaster. 
  • Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA): Founded, led, and staffed by refugees, PANA is uniquely situated to use relational organizing to bring community into a pathway of ongoing engagement and indigenous community leadership development.
  • UndocuBlack Network (UBN): UBN is a multigenerational network of currently and formerly undocumented Black people that fosters community, facilitates access to resources, and contributes to transforming the realities of their people, so they are thriving and living their fullest lives. 
  • Women Watch Afrika (WWA): WWA serves community members in the Atlanta metro area from 23 nations across the African diaspora – with a focus on leadership development of underserved immigrant and refugee women and girls. 

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A collective effort of the Four Freedoms Fund (Rini Chakraborty), Global Whole Being Fund (Negar Tayyar), Ola Osaze of Black LGBTQIA+Migrant Project (Ola Osaze), and Aryah Somers Landsberger (Independent Advisor to Unbound Philanthropy). Learn more about investing in Black-led migrant racial justice leaders by contacting Rini Chakraborty of the Four Freedoms Fund.