The Oxford Handbook of American Immigration and Ethnicity

It is the oldest cliché in the world that the American people are a patchwork of ethnicities. There may be some countries which have not sent migrants to the USA but I cannot think of any. Every cab I have ever taken in America was driven by a recent immigrant – I always ask! But despite its famous reputation as a “melting pot”, America’s racial problems are unresolved: some of its ethnic groups are not “molten” at all. It is ironical that the most vexed relationship of all is between the white majority and African-Americans, one of the country’s oldest...