Transnational Immigrants

The study of transnational immigrants has been discussed in many domains by sociologists, anthropologists, politicians and historians. In the global context, with the international exchange of goods and services transnationalism has gradually become a global phenomenon. “It’s generally acknowledged that transnationalism is not a new phenomenon, inherent to immigrant experiences in the United States and in many other migrant-receiving countries around the world.” According to Levitt and Glick-Schiller, “transnationalism is defined as the processes by which immigrants forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement.” Immigrants maintain strong and close connections to their country

Levitt and Glick Schiller define social field as “a set of multiple interlocking networks of social relationships through which ideas, practices, and resources are unequally exchanged, organized, and transformed.” Further, “individual transnational immigrants active differently with transnational social fields, some of them may maintain high level of homeland contact through organization and institution, others may participate in personal networks.” Some migrants relay extensively on transnational organization and association, because these transnational social networks help them to incorporate into mainstream society, also facilitate their transnational practices, and provide them with a large social filed that they can carry out their transnational projects. Personal networks such as family or friend connections in the country of origin also allow immigrants to be transnational immigrants from time to time. However, the participation on personal networks only limit on remittance sending and personal donations to their country of

Therefore, “the lives of immigrants can no longer be understood by simply examining what is happening within national boundaries.” The cross-border practices should be taken into account, because “immigrants are engaged in economic, cultural, social, political, or personal activities across national borders on a regular basis, and they are living a genuine transnational life as transnationals.” Since the 1970s, there were an increasing number of Chinese immigrants in the United States experience a shift from settlers to transnational migrants. Chinese transitional immigrants cases in the Unites States are the exceptional one. The existing ethnic networks and communities in a way help Chinese immigrants to adjust to the new life in the host country, maintain close ties with their homeland, and also provide opportunities for them to conduct a transnational living. Moreover, contemporary Chinese immigrants are mostly highly educated and skilled, and most of them are proficient in English language or have a permanent resident card in the U.S. They pursue a transnational living for better economic and social status. Most importantly, many Chinese entrepreneurial, professional and technical immigrants use extensively transnational organizations and associations to participate in cross-border activities. Moreover, “the Chinese