Problems and Possibilities in the Study of American Immigration and Ethnic History

Abstract

In the study of the history of immigration and ethnicity scholars often write about their own ethnic groups. For several reasons that pattern has led to an over-emphasis on the new immigrants of the early twentieth century, a limitation of focus to the experiences of the first and second generations of individual immigrant groups, and a disinterest in immigration and ethnicity as processes. Efforts to produce comparative studies of various kinds and to use survey data as a source of primary information about later generations may help correct those shortcomings.