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