ABSTRACT
A DOMINANT MYTH about the social and economic experiences of US. immigrants is that most groups confront similar opportunity structures and reception factors in the host society. Without regard for differences in the historical context of the migration, reception factors in the new society, or the migration process itself, ethnic groups are evaluated by how they fare in becoming American. Those who do not succeed socially or economically—the unmeltable ethnics—contribute towards the demise of the American “melting pot” as the dominant metaphor guiding our understanding of ethnic relations. Despite the plethora of alternative interpretations that have surfaced to explain the social significance of ethnicity and the persistence of racial and ethnic stratification in contemporary U.S. society, the melting pot metaphor has yet to be replaced.
