The concept of transnationalism is in the ascendancy. A key reason for this is that it extends our understanding of the reasons why people migrate beyond those offered by mechanistic, "push-pull" theories which have focused largely on the economic motivations of individual migrants. Transnationalism draws attention to the complex networks of migrants who, unsurprisingly, often do not sever ties with their homeland, but, rather, rely on those networks both as support systems and as a means of maintaining, in some form or other, a sense of national identity. It is probably fair to say that much of the previous work on Chinese overseas networks has focused on the economic contribution they have made to developing the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang, the so-called "qiaoxiang" (or "sourjourner's homeland") regions of China which have had a long history of overseas migration. This collection of essays, refreshingly, places more emphasis on the social, religious, cultural and political aspects of transnational networks and draws attention to associated shifts in migrants' identity across different nations, regions and generations.
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