This is about Transnationalism, new and old. Changes in technology communication and modes of transportation means that 21st century immigrants have many more options for staying in touch with their communities of origin. Foner expresses that the increasing globalization of business and industry has opened up spaces in which cross-boarder connections become positive assets for the immigrants and for their places of origin and destination.
Transnationalism is not new, even though it often seems as i f it were invented yesterday. When scholars began to write about transnationalism in 1990's, it was often treated as a contemporary phenomenon. By now, despite general agreement that transnationalism is not completely new , there has been not much exploration of what exactly it means. Transnationalism refers to the processes by which immigrants forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together
their societies of origin and settlement
Like contemporary i mmigrants, russian jews and Italians in NY at the turn of the20th century established and sustained links to their home societies at the same time as they developed ties and connections to their new land. Many immigrants came to america with the notion that they would return eventually. Lack of economic security in Amreica and full acceptance plagued immigrants a century ago and may have fostered trheir continued involvement in and allegiance to their home society
Finally, lack of a cceptance in America then, as now, probably contributed to a desire to return. This fostered a continued identification with the home country or in case of the jews, a sense of belonging to a large diaspora population. Unfortunately rejections of immigrants on grounds of race has a long history. At the turn of the century the white population was seen as divided into many sharply distinguishable races.
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