Transnationalism and Vocabularies of Motive in International Migration: The Case of Israelis in the United States

• Published in: Sociological perspectives 1997-01, Vol.40 (3), p.409-427
• Main Author: Gold, Steven J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Americas; Asia; Asia, Western; Assimilation; Behavior; Case Study; Culture; Demography; Developed Countries; Economic motivation; Emigration and Immigration; Human migration; Immigration; International migration; Israel; Jewish Cultural Groups; Jewish migration; Jewish peoples; Labor migration; Los Angeles, California; Middle Eastern Cultural Groups; Migrant communities; Migration; Migration (Israelis); Motivation; Nationalism; North America; Political migration; Population; Population Dynamics; Psychology; Transients and Migrants; Transnationalism; United States; United States of America; World systems
• ISSN: 0731-1214; 1533-8673
• DOI: 10.2307/1389450

The great body of recent work on international migration has generally considered immigration as a permanent movement and explored the phenomenon from either a micro or macro perspective. Transnationalism offers a new model that integrates these dichotomized views. This paper uses the perspective of transnationalism to explore the motives of Israeli immigrants in the U.S. Integrating insights from both micro and world systems perspectives, findings emphasize the importance of personal and macro-level networks as well as Israelis' international culture and experience as both facilitating and giving meaning to their presence in the United States. /// [Spanish] La gran producción de trabajos sobre la inmigración internacional, generalmente, ha considerado la migración como un movimiento permanente y ha explorado el fenómeno desde las micro y macro-perspectivas. El transnacionalismo ofrece un modelo nuevo que integra estos puntos de vista en dicotomía. Este trabajo utiliza la perspectiva del transnacionalismo para explorar los motivos de la migración israelí en Estados Unidos. La integración de ideas de las micro y macro-perspectivas mundiales, subrayan el énfasis de la importancia de las redes personales y de macro-nivel así también como la cultura internacional de los israelíes y la experiencia de que ambas facilitan y dan significado a su presencia en los EsTados Unidos. /// [Chinese] (Unicode for Chinese abstract). /// [Japanese] (Unicode for Japanese abstract).