How did immigration affect ideas about race?

Answer 1

Immigration made many people uncomfortable, when they saw lots of people different than themselves being successful. Thus, laws defining race kept changing to keep the racial hierarchy in place.

However, the fact that we have so many different kinds of people around also helped other people to be more open to different races, and especially cross-racial relationships and the fact that there are so many people now with mixed heritages helps people to look at race as a more fluid thing that many people can participate in rather than an either/or thing that has to be us vs. them.