Transnational Communities: Examining Migration in a Globally Integrated World

Abstract

Researchers in a variety of disciplines have concluded that contemporary international migration is fundamentally unlike that of previous periods. As an alternative to the settler-sojourner model, they have advanced an approach called 'transnationalism'.1 Stressing the globalization of political, economic, social, institutional and cultural life, the speed and low cost of modern communication and transportation, the rights revolution that has opened opportunities for incorporation and self-determination among the women and men of formerly excluded ethnic and nationality groups, and the acceptance of expatriates in the polity of many nations, the concept of transnationalism emphasizes the various networks and links (demographic, political, economic, cultural, familial) that exist between two or more locations.