America classifies the immigrants: from Ellis Island to the 2020 census

Part One The list of races and peoples

Creating and refining the list, 1898-1906

Immigration - especially European - through the lens of race

First struggles over the list: the Jewish challenges and the federal defense, 1899-1903

The United States Immigration Commission, 1907-1911

Urging the list on the U.S. Census Bureau, 1908-1910

The Census Bureau goes its own way: race, nationality, mother tongue, 1910-1916

Part Two Institutionalizing race distinctions in American immigration law

The second quota act, 1924

Immigration law for white races and others: three episodes

Part Three The ethnic group: Formulation and diffusion of an American concept, to 1964

From "race" to "ethnic group": organizing concepts in American studies of immigrants, to 1964

From social science to the federal bureaucracy? Limited diffusion of the "ethnic group" concept through the early 1950s

Part Four Incorporating the legacies of the Civil Rights Era and mass immigration from the Third World

Race and the immigrant in federal statistics after 1965

Conclusion.