According to many accounts, the present day is a time of increasing borderlessness or the breaking down of boundaries. This treatment argues that it is a time when borders are being redefined and redrawn. Examining transnationalism requires a combination of long-term and holistic views. The long-term view brings into question the newness of transnationalism. The holistic view signals that increasing transnationalism in communication, production, consumption and travel is accompanied by the emergence of new borders (as in rising restrictions on migration) and new politics of risk containment (for example, in relation to conflict areas). As some boundaries fade, others emerge that are new and/or internal; moreover, the advantages that accompany the erasure of borders are not evenly distributed. With globalization comes a new dialectics of borders. This may be understood as a process of hierarchical integration, in which integration (the spread of global capitalism and its political influence and cultural radius) fosters borderlessness, while hierarchy imposes new boundaries and forms of stratification.