This weeks reading on “Transnationalism Personified” gave us some insight on the views of Trinidadian about their opportunities of being able to go back home. This study is very insightful because it considers the people from the first generation, one-and-a-half generation, and the second generation. These groups each have their own level of exposure to their heritage that was taken into consideration when analyzing the results of this research. This paper connects all together the different aspects of the theory of transnationalism and displays its effects on the recent generations.

Going back to Trinidad was an option that these people had in the case that their current situation was not satisfying their needs. This option stayed open to them because they worked on keeping this transnational network of family and friends afloat. There is no point in going back to Trinidad for them if they show up as strangers. It also helps in the fact that they will always know “the good, the bad, and the ugly” and not find themselves surprised that the Trinidad in front of them isn’t the same Trinidad in their dreams. For the second-generation informants, they needed to make these trips to make a connection to their Trinidadian culture, and in this culture, it seems like family is willing to receive them with open arms. The newer technology has made these trips easier and cheaper. It has also made keeping these ties easier with instant messaging programs. Most importantly, the younger generation has expressed the flexibility to their identity; they identify themselves as both from their host nation and their home nation of Trinidad.

We also spoke in class about what we think about the current status of migration. The United States and most other imperialist nations do owe the decolonized nations support. History shows that this nation is to blame for the lack of stability in the rest of the Americans, Africa and the Middle East. Unfortunately, I believe that our own internal problems are just as important as solving the problems of the world. There are too many people in power in the United States that seek only personal profit. This is a very short-sighted way of living that has led to our current situation. Our government is too broken to get anything done. Yellow journalism is the only type of journalism that gets to the public. The older people of congress only care about doing things for the better of their party, not America. Our jails are just another form of business for companies. Our courts only try to prove that they are right rather than trying to find the truth. The worst part of all of this is that they probably won’t live tosee the consequences of keeping this system, and that’s why they keep doing it; they have a mindset of “let the next group of people handle it”.

I’m arguing that our problems should be solved first, and I’m saying that because our problems affect the whole world. Just two days ago, JP Morgan, amongst other banks, plead guilty over manipulating foreign exchange rates. Companies don’t just plead guilty to something that serious, and these companies did because they know they won’t get punished. Well, they will get punished, probably a pretty big fine. But, I am willing to bet that fine is nowhere near as much as the amount of money they profited from the manipulations. The major players behind this should be sent to jail for life. This government is practically saying, “Fine you can steal from the world, just give us a cut”. These people are just going to go ahead and do it again, because they weighed out their options and saw that “getting caught” still netted them a profit. If we stop our people from doing things like this, we will not only be helping ourselves, we will also be helping many other countries around the world.