A study published in the American Journal of Education in 2007 found that immigrants or children of immigrants — while making up 13 percent of the nation's black 18-19-year-olds — accounted for 41 percent of blacks admitted to Ivy League schools.

"If it's about getting black faces at Harvard, then you're doing fine," Mary C. Waters, the former chair of Harvard's sociology department told the New York Times about a need for a philosophical discussion on affirmative action. "If it's about making up for 200 to 500 years of slavery in this country and its aftermath, then you're not doing well."

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Onoso Imoagene, a University of Pennsylvania sociologist born in Nigeria, who studies African immigrants and how they adapt to discrimination in America, said although more than half of Nigerians in America are college-educated, just 7 percent of Nigerians abroad have at least a bachelor's degree. So those who end up in the United States are the smartest, the most educated — "a hyper-selected group," she said.