Memo will realize that as advances in technology propel society into the future, the more simplistic lifestyle of his past must not be forgotten. .
One main theme to be addressed is the advancement of technology and how it influences globalization and immigration. Globalization unfolds when culture, business practices, people, and other aspects of every country in the world start to overlap; in a more cliche sense it is the "shrinking" of the world. Furthermore, immigration is one of the processes that fuels globalization in the way that it calls for the mixing or overlap of the different populations of the world. When discussing the movie, Rivera commented that the presence of globalization and immigration fall hand-in-hand and that the "great contradiction of the world [is that] people are told to stay put but products and corporations can transcend borders. But when a workers want to cross, that's illegal (Rivera)." Rivera is trying to make the point that capitalist societies want to make a profit and go outside their countries either to find better products or to have products produced cheaper. .
Essentially, business crossing international borders is exactly what the single immigrant worker would like to do, cross from Mexico into the United States for a chance at better work and higher pay. However, there seems to be more discrimination against the single immigrant worker, who is barred and discouraged from illegally crossing into another country by laws and the anti-sentiments of that country's population against immigrants as opposed to the large corporations who establish themselves within the borders of a "weaker" country – weaker being in the sense of less economically viability. Then the weaker country is often taken advantage of and exploited for its resources and manpower. In "Sleep Dealer," this exploitation is taking place; however, Rivera finds a loophole to the immigration tenet of globalization; in using the nodes, Rivera combines the product and the person, thus completely eliminating the need for immigration.