This book demonstrates convincingly that a full analysis of immigrant political behavior must take into account connections to the country of origin. Political scientists have begun to investigate some of these dynamics for Latino immigrants, but transnationalism has been little studied for the current wave of immigrants from Asia. It is to be hoped that this book will pioneer the way for more research on this important topic.

Editors Christian Collet and Pei-te Lien provide a succinct summary of the development of the concept of transnationalism and a useful overview of the debate over the concept. They focus primarily on the use of the concept in political science, however, and so their summary does not explain that the idea of transnationalism has been deeply entrenched in other areas of immigration scholarship for many decades. The oft-bemoaned separation between American politics and area studies is likely one of the major reasons for American political scientists' belated recognition of the importance of transnationalism.

The chapters examine the well-established aspects of transnationalism, especially the ways that immigrant lives can be shaped by their ties to their country of origin. Collet and Lien note that this book's focus does not allow them to explore the more ambitious claim that transnationalism “may constitute a mass movement or emergent ideology akin to nineteenth-century and twentieth-century nationalism” (p. 12). However, while that claim is indeed never directly addressed, it can be said that the studies in this volume offer little support for the idea that transnationalism is an emerging ideology that will erode the importance of national borders.

The book is organized into three parts focusing, in turn, on the role that “Asian states and nationalisms play in the politics of Asian Americans,” the “practices and sites of Asian American transnational politics,” and the way that the “political behavior and identities of Asian Americans [are] shaped by their transnational ties” (pp. 13–17).

Chapters in Part I convincingly show that the study of transnationalism often requires multilingual researchers. Eiichiro Azuma uses documentary evidence in English and Japanese to shed a fascinating light on the efforts of Japanese Americans and the Japanese government to collaborate during the second decade of the twentieth century, with those efforts foundering as the interests of the two diverged. Hiroko Furuya and Collet also draw on evidence in two languages as they trace the development of a Vietnamese American movement against the communist regime that took power in Vietnam. The chapters also provide nicely detailed examples of how country-of-origin politics can be a dominant concern for some immigrants from Asia.

The chapters in Parts II and III add further evidence that Asian American transnationalism has much in common with what scholars have found regarding earlier European immigrants. Survey data analyzed in the third section demonstrates that transnational orientations diminish over time and over generations, as they did in earlier eras. Lien and Janelle Wong find a negative relationship between length of time in the country and attention paid to country-of-origin politics, and Collet and Ikumi Koakutsu find that transnational orientations are largely limited to the first generation, and that among the first generation, they are strongest among those who have not been naturalized.

Even among the immigrant generation, transnationalism appears to be quite limited, as seems to have been the case with immigrants of the past. Using a broad definition of transnationalism, Collet and Koakutsu find that about 16% of Asian Americans in their survey engaged in transnationalism, while Lien and Wong find that only about 6% of Asian Americans engaged in politically related transnationalism. That some immigrants will be drawn to politics connected to their country of origin is not surprising; as Sangay Mishra notes in a case study of the politics of a U.S.-India nuclear agreement, Greek, Jewish, and Cuban and other immigrants groups have been actively involved in foreign policy debates affecting their native lands (p. 113).

How might this involvement affect the political fortunes of immigrants? Studies of Latino immigrants have found that attention to the country of origin can diminish some types of incorporation into American society (e.g., Michael Jones-Correa, Between Two Nations: The Political Predicament of Latinos in New York City, 1998). Yet, Lien and Wong do not find this result in their analysis of data from the Pilot Asian American National Political Study, or PNAAPS). In fact, they conclude that “Asian Americans' transnational political concerns” not only “do not inhibit them from getting involved in U.S. society and politics but may enhance their degree of incorporation” (p. 148). Case studies in the second part of the book offer further support for this conclusion, showing how transnational connections are often used as resources to enhance political and social involvement in American society.

What might be the effects of transnational politics on the native born? It has often been noted that the majority of today's immigrants are often classified as “nonwhite” or as “minorities,” but that begs the question of what might be the political consequences of the numerical growth of those categories. For example, an increase in the number of individuals classified as “African American” is much more meaningful if all of those in that category identify as African American and see their fate linked to those of others similarly categorized.

These chapters offer no clear answer. Collet and Koakutsu find that greater transnational activity is associated with a decreased likelihood to identify pan-ethnically, suggesting that those immigrants may be less likely to support coalitions made up of an ethnically diverse mix of Asian Americans, consistent with other research that has found Asian Americans slow to offer political support across ethnic lines. On the other hand, Tritia Toyota's case study of Chinese American immigrants finds that exposure to pan–Asian American issues contributed to politicization and some increase in a sense of pan-ethnic identity. The immigrants described by Toyota were focused largely on issues affecting their lives in the United States, however, suggesting that geographic orientation (toward country of origin or toward the United States) may make a difference.

These varying findings point to a strength of this book as well as the need for more research. The editors have done an excellent job of highlighting the widely ranging ways that transnationalism can operate. However, this huge range of variation may mean that we need more distinctions between types of transnational political behavior. Transnationalism that involves a focus on country of origin may have different effects from a transnationalism that is used as a resource for involvement in domestic issues. While both may help to encourage political mobilization and, ultimately, incorporation, the former may encourage far less pan-ethnic and other alliances than the latter.

The Transnational Politics of Asian Americans makes a strong case that political scientists need to pay more attention to this subject. It adds to the growing body of research showing that many of today's immigrant activists are influenced by connections to their country of origin, as has long been the case for immigrants. While these individuals make up a small percentage of the total immigrant population, they are often among the most politically active, making them important for political scientists to understand. At the same time, these chapters offer no evidence to support the claim that a new transnational identity is emerging. Second- and later-generation Asian Americans are oriented primarily to the United States, and the first generation's transnationalism looks similar to that of immigrants of earlier eras. This collection makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the political behavior of today's immigrants, and it suggests that there is much continuity underlying the substantial change that immigrants bring to America.