improvements in communication technology result in both positive and negative consequences

for non-migrant women in the sending community.

 Chapter 6 concludes the dissertation, summing up the major findings of my research and

suggesting approaches for future research.

 Conclusion

 Transnational migration are the ways in "which immigrants forge and sustain multi-

stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement" (Basch et al.

1994) and has previously been considered a promoter of change in sending communities.

Although transnational migration has sponsored significant transformations in migrant

communities worldwide, we must ask: who benefits from these changes and does transnational

migration truly create transformations in the social structure for oppressed groups such as

women and indigenous Maya? As of 2006, an estimated 1.2 million Guatemalans had emigrated

to the United States, about ten percent of the Guatemalan population. Remittances have topped

over 3 billion dollars nationally and almost 4 million people in Guatemala are receiving money

from overseas, or one-third of the country's population (Migration Information Source 2006).

While migration has an impact on the individual and family by increasing standards of living,

communities as a whole have benefited as well in the form of electricity, health centers, housing

improvements, potable water, and recreational projects. Still, these economic changes come at a

price.

 While transnational migration enables migrants and their non-migrant family members to

improve their economic status and standards of living, families are separated and lives forever

changed. Migration provides the means in which gender and ethnic relations can be reconfigured

and creates opportunities for migrants to gain economic and social capital confronting race,

class, and gender divides. Nonetheless, change is gradual and women's and indigenous Maya's