European immigrants held an intermediate racial status and were induced to become white

Evidence

After 1877 the U.S. colorline started to be inscribed around Europe, rather than through it, chiefly because of the sheer demographic weight of the new immigrants, and also because other racial conflicts drew attention away. These Atlantic immigrants were not WASPs and not considered white: While not black or Asian either, they did possess an intermediate racial status. In the nation’s industrial heartland, immigrant workers were induced to refashion themselves as white and to compete with each other for that coveted status (Roediger 2005). — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 40

Categorization

• XREF: Directly anchors the vault’s claims about Irish/Italian/Eastern European racial in-betweenness and whiteness-as-achieved-status; echoes Roediger’s work — connects to: European immigrants’ racial difference had to be intellectually manufactured — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 768; America’s real prize for immigrants was winning whiteness, not wealth. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 66; The Democratic Party taught Irish immigrants the meaning of whiteness. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 286 (+14 more)
• ADDENDUM: Relevant to the article on moral panics over appearance: immigrant self-refashioning as white was a visual/cultural contest, not just legal.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 40