This subjectivist approach, given powerful impetus by the wide and much-deserved attention given to Benedict Anderson’s notion of “imagined communities,” tends to ignore the extent to which identities must become codified and institutionalized in order to become socially significant. Noiriel has made this point in the strongest possible terms with respect to immigrants: “It is often overlooked that legal registration, identification documents, and laws are what, in the final analysis, determine the ‘identity’ of immigrants.”20
