Introduction

In recent decades, the rise of world markets, technological revolutions in transportation and communication, and the flood of images and messages from new media have brought what was once distant and inaccessible within easy reach of the individual. The territorial and social demarcations that characterized nationstates are rapidly disappearing; this is reflected not only in new forms of governance and economic globalization, but in transnational social integration, mobility, affiliations, and networks. Social relationships and interactions have expanded across physical space, leading to lives that are more transnational and mobile than ever.