From the book Beyond Economic Migration (pg. 301)

(Excerpt) Transnationalism and Gender among ImmigrantsEconomic, Political, and Social ChallengesSilvia PedrazaMore than anyone else, immigrants live their lives in a transnational social field. They typically develop subjectivities, engage in communication, take actions, and live many aspects of their social lives across two or more nations. Focusing on immigrants to the United States, in this chapter I first review the major approaches to understanding why people migrate and how they assimilate. I also evaluate the major concepts that arose over time—from assimilation to incorporation to transnationalism.  I argue that while immigrants have always been transnational, the advent of modern communications qualitatively changed the immigrant experience in the last half-century. Today’s immigrants routinely live their lives across two or more nations; they also, at once, live life in the past and the present.