Many immigrants came over to New York simply to make money. They came here, looked for jobs, worked for a few months or years to save up money, and then returned to their homeland. Italian immigrants were well known for this and became known as “birds of passage.” Since people coming from Italy were mostly men, they kept in touch with their wives, kids, and parents in Italy. However, communication was not as simple as it is today: people sent letters, with money orders enclosed, to their families. Since they would one day return home, they had to keep in contact with their family and friends back home. This is known as “transnationalism,” which is when “immigrants forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement…An essential element…is the multiplicity of involvements that transmigrants sustain in both home and host societies.”
Transnationalism is nothing new in today’s day and age. It has been going on for years, ever since people first started immigrating to new counties. What’s different about transnationalism now? The ease with which people can communicate with each other is mind-boggling. We can call people in Canada, India, and Australia in the blink of an eye. And not only can we call them, we can text them or chat via Facebook. Sometimes I think about how amazing it is that we can talk to people in other places so quickly and easily. We don’t have to sit down and write letters to people anymore. Those could take weeks to reach their destinations. Technology has made things so much simple (although I’m sure it has also caused more conflicts since people can talk so much more frequently). Something that stood out to me is the fact that one man called up a friend in another country to find out how to say a specific word in another language instead of consulting a dictionary. That should be enough to exhibit the technological advances that we have these days.
I have been well aware of this transnationalism for years, as my parents call relatives all over the world. Technology has made our world much easier, in that my father can talk to his brothers and sisters who are back home in India whenever he wants to, and my mother can talk to her mom, brothers, and sisters in Canada whenever she wants to. Whether they just miss each other or have something important to discuss, these advances have simplified communication all over the world.
Technology has had such a profound impact on our lives, especially the younger generations who grew up in such a modern and cutting-edge era. Older people see the computers and the Internet as a new invention, and these young children seem as though they are born with Iphones attached at the hip. Once they turn two years old, babies start grabbing for these state-of-the-art devices. Technology has definitely changed our lives forever.
