L. Edward Purcell

Immigrants share similar experiences despite the fact that they arrived in the United States during different eras, asserts L. Edward Purcell in the following viewpoint. Although many like to argue that America is a “melting pot” in which immigrants immerse themselves and emerge as Americans without recognizable signs of their ethnic heritage, Purcell contends that this is a false belief. Immigrants tended to settle together in ethnic or national enclaves. This allowed them to retain at least some aspects of their ethnic identity—language, culture, or customs—for at least two generations and sometimes into the third or fourth generation. Purcell is an independent historian, editor, and journalist who has written more than a dozen books and numerous articles, many of them on historical topics.

The social process...