Immigration adaptation and race relations in the United States began receiving a great deal of scholarly attention early in the twentieth century, primarily in response to the arrival of large numbers of newcomers from eastern and southern Europe. The pre-eminent theory has been sociologist Robert Park's (1950) ‘race relations’ cycle, which posits that immigrants and racial minorities initially clashed with natives over cultural values and norms, but over time, adapt and are eventually absorbed into the mainstream society. This four-part cycle of contact, competition, accommodation and assimilation, according to Park, is ‘progressive and irreversible’. Unlike European Americans, however, the Chinese American experience in the United States has never been a consistent trajectory toward progressive and irreversible acceptance and assimilation.
