Recent "black" immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean are not similarly distinguished in terms of national origin on the census--they are lumped into the black, or African American, category without regard for their linguistic, religious, and other cultural differences. Many recent African and black Caribbean immigrants have been troubled by the fact that they are usually lumped into this category despite the fact that they think of themselves as Africans, Nigerians, Somalis, Jamaicans, etc. Likewise, many blacks whose ancestry included slavery in the U.S. do not feel kinship with these new immigrants because of their radically different historical and cultural backgrounds. Adding to this social division between native born and immigrant blacks has been the fact that the foreign born blacks more often have university degrees and subsequently are able to obtain higher paying jobs. Similar to the lumping of diverse peoples into the black category for the census, all European, Middle Eastern, and North African immigrants are defined as "white" without concern for their significant cultural differences. To learn how races were officially defined for the year 2000 Census click here.