Creating a transnational community

Rooted in American experiences, immigration studies traditionally investigated how immigrants fare in the new society, with the expectation that they eventually shed their old cultural practices and political loyalties to become assimilated into the host society’s sociocultural and economic systems ( Warner and Srole 1945 ; Gordon 1964 ; Alba and Nee 1997 ). With the expanding scope of international migration in every part of the globe, advancing modern communication and transportation technologies, and the intensified global capitalist process, immigrants’ adaptation practices increasingly cut across national boundaries. Their cultural and social identities become rooted in both home and host societies (Glick Schiller 1999 ). Diaspora voting and dual citizenship ensure immigrants’ political representation in the home country ( Basch et al. 1994 ; Laguerre 1999 ; Guarnizo 1998 ; Guarnizo et al. 2003 ; Kearney 1991 , 1995 ; Kyle 2000 ). Transnational entrepreneurship has become an alternative means of economic adaptation ( Portes et al. 2002 ). Frequent travels between the host and home societies help immigrants maintain a closely-knit transnational social field and preserve their social and cultural roots in the home country ( Glick Schiller and Fouron 1999 ; Goldring 1998 ).