In the study of the history of immigration and ethnicity scholars often write about their own ethnic groups. For several reasons that pattern has led to an over-emphasis on the new immigrants of the early twentieth century, a limitation of focus to the experiences of the first and second generations of individual immigrant groups, and a disinterest in immigration and ethnicity as processes. Efforts to produce comparative studies of various kinds and to use survey data as a source of primary information about later generations may help correct those shortcomings.