The truth is that the lower price of travel and the ability to immerse oneself in foreign language media can even change previous waves of immigration. Long lost ties from previous waves of immigration can even be re-established. I’ve seen it in my own life. Did I mention my own father is native Irish, and may mother began speaking the Irish language 120 years after her ancestors gave it up? One of my American-born cousins spent long stretches in Ireland. I now keep in light contact with an extended family over iMessage and Instagram. I read the Irish newspapers online, and stream the foreign language television network TG Ceathair on my iPad.
Millions of people from Central and South America will do the same in the United States. Just as many Serbians do so in Germany. Not all immigrant waves stay. When the bust hit European nations, many Poles who had sought work in Western Europe returned home.
In this new model, a wave of immigration doesn’t have to crest. It can establish a community that maintains itself against the national culture with astonishing tenacity, and with the help of constant recirculation of people in and out of the diaspora.
Millions of people from Central and South America will do the same in the United States. Just as many Serbians do so in Germany. Not all immigrant waves stay. When the bust hit European nations, many Poles who had sought work in Western Europe returned home.
In this new model, a wave of immigration doesn’t have to crest. It can establish a community that maintains itself against the national culture with astonishing tenacity, and with the help of constant recirculation of people in and out of the diaspora.
The new form of immigration is going to challenge our assumptions about integration and assimilation.
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