In the cases of Jamaica and Haiti, those who've made it to America tend to be middle to upper middle class and are often somewhat different culturally from ADOS so the distinction makes sense. But the way they're phrasing it sounds weird.
However, of course, many Black immigrants work up the economic ladder and end up in the middle class (and sometimes upper middle class).
I guess it depends on who you know from school, college, work, and the local community. There are definitely a fair amount of African immigrants (usually from Nigeria, Ethiopia/Eritrea, and Somalia in my experience) and/or the children of immigrants in pre-professional tracks and certain STEM majors. Often their parents were professionals, teachers, or other relatively well-off/middle-class occupations in their home countries.
