African immigrants drift toward Latin America
Nowadays, Africans might arrive on cargo ships or commercial planes and then seek asylum or overstay tourist visas. In Argentina, they can obtain temporary work visas shortly after arriving and renew them every three months.
"The migratory policies of the country are very favorable," said Manzanares. "It's a reflection of history. What happened with European immigrants 100 years ago is now happening with African immigrants."
Africans in Argentina can also obtain free health services and some take Spanish lessons taught by Catholic charities.
Abdoul Rahman met his Argentine wife when he sold her a ring five years ago. He sends money to his mother and seven sisters in Africa and stays close to his Muslim religion at Buenos Aires' Alberdi mosque.
There Rahman meets dozens of other Africans for Friday prayers. Although some of those interviewed said they faced racism in Argentina, they agreed that it was minor compared to the xenophobia and anti-immigration laws that African migrants face in Europe.
Italy enacted legislation in July that made it a felony to be an illegal immigrant or to help one.
During the 1990s a large number of Angolans fled the civil war and settled in communities in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Now increasing numbers of immigrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo are escaping violence and civil war back home and seeking asylum in Brazil, which can be an easy country for African immigrants to adapt to because it has the largest black population outside of Africa.
"The adaptation process is really good in Brazil," said Carolina Montenegro of UNHCR in Brazil. "For Africans it tends to be easier because of this cultural heritage."
More and more immigrants from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia are also making their way to Mexico and Central America via cargo ships, hoping to eventually reach the United States over land.
The number of Africans passing through the detention center in Tapachula, a city near Mexico's southern border, was more than 600 last year, three times as many as in 2007.
Some immigrants make epic journeys through many countries to find a new home. Mohamed Ahmed Hassen, 31, a Somali truck driver, sold his land to pay for his journey. He traveled through Kenya and Tanzania to Mozambique where he paid a trafficker $1,500 to get him on a ship to Sao Paulo.
"We didn't know if it was day or night," he said. "We had no watches to see the date. We only knew we were there a long time."
From Brazil, he went to Colombia and then by boat to Panama, on to Costa Rica, then Nicaragua and finally Guatemala where he was detained and where he is now seeking asylum.
Liberian immigrant Emmanuel Danso, 18, came to Argentina in July stowing aboard a cargo ship after his parents were killed during his country's civil war. Now he wants to study to become a laboratory technician.
"Back home I'm homeless; I'm an orphan," Danso said, as he walked into a Spanish lesson at a Catholic charity. "But in this country there's great opportunity for me."
