Immigration and Social Capital in the Age of Social Media
American Social Institutions and a Korean-American Women’s Online Community
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Lexington Books
Published:18th Feb '16
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
In this new age of social media, the role of online ethnic networks is as important as offline ethnic networks—families, friends, etc.—in helping immigrants adjust to their new country. This is something that has received very little attention in the academic field of international immigration which Oh hopes to rectify through this book. He focuses on the five American social institutions (immigration, welfare, education, housing, and finance) to explore this topic through the lens of married Korean-American women. In their online "MissyUSA" community, the largest Korean-American women's online community in North America, they share a wide range of information about the rules of each of these social institutions as they work together to navigate American society. Oh explores how the “MissyUSA” community creates two distinctive forms of social capital: social resources and social support. For some of its members (inquirers or information seekers), the “MissyUSA” community functions as an important source of their information (social resources) about the rules of the American social institutions. Likewise, it also functions as a network of social supporters (respondents or information providers) for those information seekers. Here, what makes this book a significant one is the fact that these social supporters are distinctively identified as instrumental guiders (information describers, expositors, confirmers, and advisors) and emotional supporters (companions, encouragers, and critics). By researching the lives of Korean-American women who are members of the "MissyUSA" community, Oh's book works to understand how a sub-set of the Korean-American community shares information about American institutions and uses the internet to do so.
Joong-Hwan Oh tackles an intriguing topic.... [T]his book makes a valuable contribution to the field of immigration studies and the growing area of social media research.... The details of immigrant experiences as they attempt to deal with the specific types of American social institutions as investigated in this book represent an aspect of immigrant experience not heavily explored elsewhere. This book also sheds useful light onto the ways in which social media serve as a new and emerging space for constructing alternative immigrant social networks * Contemporary Sociology *
In this book, Joong-Hwan Oh analyzes postings on the “Life Q & A” message board in the “Missy USA,” the largest Korean-American women’s online community, as “distinctive forms of social capital” (social resources and social support) for married Korean immigrant women. Oh has used an innovative research technique in studying immigrants’ social networks in this age of the internet. The book is a great contribution not only to studies of Korean immigrants, but also to contemporary immigrants in general. -- Pyong Gap Min, Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
Departing from traditional studies of immigration, where immigrant stories of struggle and adaptation are captured and illuminated through analyses of in-depth interviews, in this book Joong-Hwan Oh focuses instead on key American social institutions–immigration, social welfare, education, housing, and financial- that impinge on the lives of immigrants and natives alike. Unlike past immigrants with limited information to navigate the host society's social institutions, the Internet, particularly, the reciprocal exchange of valuable information via online postings enables today's immigrants a much smoother transition to the receiving country. Through an in-depth examination of these online postings, we are better able to understand the intricacies of the rules and requirements that affect the lives of immigrants, but more importantly, the book can also serve as an important how-to-manual for immigrants (and perhaps natives) who often lack the critical information and understanding for making informed decisions in the new country. -- Dae Young Kim, George Mason University
ISBN: 9781498519267
Dimensions: 240mm x 157mm x 24mm
Weight: 562g
256 pages