Between “Here” and “There”: Immigrant Cross-Border Activities and Loyalties

Abstract

This paper provides an empirical assessment of the prevalence and determinants of cross-state social exchanges and attachments among Latin American immigrants living in the United States. As we shall show, using data from a recent survey of Latin American migrants living in the United States, migrant cross-state social action comees in a variety of types, with the direction of conditioning factors differing from one type to another. Moreover, social and political incorporation in the United States, reduces affective ties and provision of material support, all the while facilitating other forms of cross-state social action. Consequently, while international migrants regularly engage in trans-state social action, the paper shows that neither transnationalism as condition of being, nor transmigrants, as distinctive class of people, is commonly found.