Temi Alao Receives National Dissertation Research Award for Study of Black Immigrant Experiences in France
Temi Alao, a doctoral candidate in Emory University’s Department of Sociology, is one of 25 graduate students nationwide selected to receive this year’s Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant from the American Sociological Association.
The competitive award supports empirically grounded, theoretically informed research that advances understanding of societies, their institutions and the people within them.
For Alao, the funding supports a dissertation that asks a deceptively simple question: Why do Black immigrants living in the same country sometimes experience very different opportunities and outcomes?
Her dissertation, Status Hierarchies of Black France, examines the experiences of Black immigrants from the United States and African countries living in France. Alao is studying how perceptions tied to nationality can affect how immigrants are viewed, treated and positioned in the workplace, as well as their ability to use social networks to find opportunities and advance economically.
Drawing on surveys, interviews and a survey experiment involving 151 Black immigrants, Alao has identified what she describes as a “Black status hierarchy” in France. Her research finds that Black American immigrants are often perceived as having higher social status than African immigrants, influencing how they are viewed and treated.
The project grew from Alao’s own experiences navigating multiple cultures and, later, studying in France.
What does it mean to you to be one of 25 graduate students nationwide to receive this award?
At a time when higher education resources are being defunded every day, including for sociologists like me who study race and immigration, I’m extremely humbled and honored to receive this award.
Your own experiences played an important role in shaping this research. Where did the questions behind your dissertation begin?
I am the child of Nigerian parents who migrated to the United States in the 1990s. Growing up in Dallas, I was shaped by two worlds thousands of miles apart. I was socialized by my Nigerian family at home and by Southern Black culture at school and through music, television and other media. Those experiences have had a great influence on my research interests in race, immigration, identity and stratification.
Although no one in my family has ties to France, I studied French from middle school through college and had the opportunity to study abroad in Paris in 2022.
During that experience, I noticed that people sometimes treated me differently when they thought I was simply a Black American than when they knew I had ties to an African country. It was especially apparent when I switched between French and English and my American accent became more noticeable.
That experience made me think about Black American expatriates such as James Baldwin, Josephine Baker and Langston Hughes, and it motivated me to ask whether differences in how Black immigrants are perceived and treated in France could be documented empirically today.
How would you explain your dissertation to someone outside sociology?
My dissertation, Status Hierarchies of Black France, seeks to understand why some immigrants climb the economic ladder and integrate more successfully than others, even when they are racialized similarly as Black or Afro-descendant.
I examine that question in France, where a legal and cultural commitment to race-blind ideology exists alongside significant inequalities among Black immigrants of different national origins. In other words, France does not recognize race as significant, despite stark inter- and intra-racial inequalities persisting.
Specifically, I ask how differences in the perceived status of Black immigrants from the United States and Africa shape their experiences in the labor market. That includes their influence in the workplace and their ability to use personal networks for resources such as job leads.
My research suggests there is what I call a “Black status hierarchy” in French society. Black American immigrants are often perceived as having higher status than African immigrants and, as a result, may be seen as more competent, receive greater respect and be treated more positively.
Why does understanding these differences matter?
This research offers another way to study inequality in countries where race may be minimized or delegitimized because of colorblind ideology, including France, the United States and other nations.
When race is ignored or treated inconsistently in research, the experiences of vulnerable populations, such as African migrants in France, can become socially and statistically invisible.
Understanding those differences helps us see forms of inequality that might otherwise be overlooked.
How has the grant supported your work?
The grant has supported travel and research expenses, including flights to France, conference travel, research software and participant incentives.
The bulk of the grant funding went toward compensating people for the time they gave to participate in the study. That was very important to me because this research would not have been possible without them.
I lived in France from September 2025 through August 2026, and the DDRIG, combined with my Laney Graduate School stipend, helped support my lodging and travel during the research.
How has Emory helped prepare you for this work?
My advisor, Dr. Karida Brown, and my dissertation committee have been incredibly supportive and foundational to my development as a junior scholar.
Before reaching candidacy and beginning my dissertation fieldwork, I also took seminars in the sociology department that helped prepare me for the project, including Racial Colonial Capitalism with Karida Brown, Structural Approaches to Interaction with Cathryn Johnson and Advanced Network Analysis with Weihua An.
Where do you hope to take this research next?
I hope to build on this research by studying broader patterns of American emigration. Why are Americans leaving the United States at higher rates? What is driving their departure? And how do they integrate into their new societies once they arrive?
I also hope this work encourages other sociologists to find new and compelling ways to study inequalities in the United States and abroad, particularly those that are hidden or overlooked.
A fifth-year doctoral candidate in sociology, Alao plans to defend her dissertation in spring 2027 and is currently on the academic job market.