The mainstream of American life has demonstrated since the colonial period a remarkable capacity to draw into its swift currents the descendants of successive waves of immigrants. Individuals and families descended from the mass immigrations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have joined the mainstream despite the fierce nativist hostility directed toward immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and East Asia. The descendants may choose to celebrate their ethnic identity and cultural roots, but their ethnicity has greatly diminished as an ascriptive trait that decisively shapes life chances. The processes that brought about this outcome are the motor of American assimilation, and the goal of this book is to demonstrate their continued relevance.

A new era of mass immigration beginning in the late 1960s has dramatically increased the diversity of ethnic groups in American society. In contrast to the immigration of the past, the new immigrants hail predominantly from the developing societies of Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean Basin. The 2000 US Census documents the tremendous surge in the number of immigrants and their children, who now constitute 20 percent of the total American population. The new immigrant and second generations are a significant presence in neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces in virtually all metropolitan areas of the United States. Their widespread influence on American society prompts the question: Do differences in national origin and cultural