ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of the communication platforms in how migrants navigate their relationship between their country of origin and their chosen home. While recent research on Filipino migrants has focused on the plight of overseas workers and undocumented Filipinos, the chapter examines the media use of the largely ignored group of highly educated, professional Filipino migrants who have chosen to permanently reside in the United States. The chapter draws on the theory of polymedia to examine the use of new media technologies such as mobile phones and social networking sites to maintain ties with the homeland. It argues that "elite" Filipino migrants engage with a nationalism-from-afar that can be seen as weak and ambivalent, but still illustrates an affiliation and identification with their nation of origin while building lives in the United States. While early migrants were constrained by the limits of communication and transportation technologies in maintaining transnational ties, contemporary migrants are not limited by technological capability.
