Over the past decade, one million foreigners migrated each year to the United States legally and perhaps another half a million have entered the country illegally. The resultant public alarm and increasingly politicized debates on immigration reforms and border enforcement underscore American's ambivalence toward immigration. While acknowledging the immigrant workers' contributions to the U.S. economy, many native-born Americans view the growing presence of ethnic minorities in their midst as a threat to the country's core cultural values and racial order. There is a perception that the diversity of recent immigrants, drawn overwhelmingly from Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia, is changing the fabric of American society.The course is intended to bring a much needed historical perspective to this complex national debate. It will bring together writings of imminent social scientists (mostly sociologists) and historians to consider the relationship between immigration, race and ethnicity in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the present day. A particular attention will be given to the continuities as well as changes in the patterns of immigration flows and adaptation process. The class will focus, in addition, on the social interactions between the immigrant communities and the native-born Americans, whites as well as African Americans, and among various ethnic/racial minorities.