[10] Many Zimbabweans who emigrate, particularly those with British, Malawian, Portuguese, Greek, and Mozambiquean ancestry hold or are eligible for dual citizenship, which makes determining their exact numbers difficult.
The emergence of socioeconomic problems beginning in the 1990s, led to a small wave of emigration, which included large numbers of well-educated professionals, particularly in finance and the medical field and students who began to seek out the US as an alternative destination.
[15] In addition, the high value that is given to higher education has led many Zimbabwean students to migrate to the United States to continue their university studies there.
Historically white Zimbabweans were concentrated in Los Angeles and Southern California, Philadelphia, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Tampa, and Atlanta in 2000.
[16] However, as the community grew and diversified, most Zimbabweans now tend to reside in the Washington, D.C., area, New York City, Southern California and Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston.
Other notable centers of the Zimbabwean American population are New Jersey; Greater Philadelphia; the San Francisco Bay Area; Atlanta; Boston, Chicago, North Carolina and Indianapolis.
[12] Indeed, South Africans and Zimbabweans are among the most skilled and professionally employed immigrants in the US today, with nearly 60 per cent of them holding a bachelor's degree or higher based on a 2005 study.