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The ‘twilight of ethnicity’, a secular decline in the significance of ethnicity for the lives of the descendants of European immigrants in the USA, was set in motion by post-Second World War developments; and as Herbert Gans demonstrates, it has deepened since then. Looking at such a large-scale alteration to the ethno-racial configuration of the USA prompts the question: what can we learn about possible or likely changes involving new immigrant populations? My argument is that, although a replication of the massive boundary shift of the past seems out of reach, demographic shifts will create the prospect of some non-zero-sum mobility, with ramifications for the constitution of the mainstream and that of minority groups themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]