Mail-order bride
Encyclopedia
Mail-order bride is a label applied to a woman who publishes her intent to marry someone from another (usually more financially developed) country. This term is considered offensive by some people. The mail-order bride industry is the economic trade of contracted domestic partnership
s, often between citizens of different countries or cultures. A derivative of arranged marriage
practices, mail-order bride services satisfy the statistical imbalance of men to women in the West and the economic needs of women in the East. Historically, mail-order brides were women who listed themselves in catalogs and were selected by men for marriage. Sometimes the men and women involved were citizens of different countries (e.g. women from European countries moving to the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries), and sometimes they involved citizens of the same country.
Although historically mail-order brides came from well-developed areas to marry men in overseas colonies and frontier lands, the trend has reversed. Recently, the trend is towards women living in developing countries
seeking men in more-developed countries. The majority of these women are from Southeast Asia
, countries of the former Soviet Union
and (to a lesser extent) from Latin America
. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union
large numbers of eastern European women have advertised themselves in such a way, primarily from Russia
, Belarus
, Ukraine
and Moldova
. In the past, international marriage agencies such as Cherry Blossoms allowed women to sign up to be listed in picture magazines; now, the internet has largely supplanted this method. Men who list themselves in such publications are referred to as "mail-order husbands". Nations that often receive mail-order brides are the United States
, Canada
, United Kingdom
, South Korea
, Taiwan
, Singapore
, Germany
and Australia
.
The term "mail-order bride" is both criticized by owners (and customers) of international marriage agencies and used by them as an easily-recognizable term. It has been pointed out that there is a discrepancy between how international adoption
s are regarded ("saving a child") and how international marriages are regarded ("buying a wife"). It has also been noted that "In feminist writing on mail-order brides, women’s and men’s voices remain absent. Instead, this scholarship assumes a one-to-one correspondence between the male gaze on the Web sites and women’s exploitation as domestic laborers in the home".
During the late 19th century, references began to appear to an "international marriage market". Key variables determining the relationship between migration and marriage were demographics, legal policies, cultural perceptions and technology. In the early United States, the difficulty and dangers of traveling and the uncertainty of life on the frontier resulted in communities where women were scarce. Imbalances between the number of available women and the number of men desiring partners created a demand for immigrant women. As a result of this imbalance, a new system of "picture brides" developed in predominantly-male settlements. In the early 20th century, the institution of "picture bride
s" developed due to immigration restrictions. The Japanese-American Passport Agreement of 1907 allowed Japan
to grant passports to the wives of immigrants to America. With immigration of unmarried Japanese women to America effectively barred the use of "picture brides" provided a mechanism for willing women to obtain a passport to America, while Japanese workers in America could gain a female helpmate of their own nationality.
, dating or correspondence
. Many of these marriage agencies are based near women in developing countries (such as Ukraine, Russia, Colombia, Brazil, China, Thailand and the Philippines). International marriage agencies encourage women to register for their services, and facilitate communication and meetings with men from developed regions of North America, Western Europe, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. This network of smaller international marriage agencies is often affiliated with web-based international dating sites that are able to market their services on a larger scale, in compliance with regulations such as the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act
. International dating sites provide a wide variety of online communication, including instant messaging, email letters, webcam-based chat, phone translation, virtual gifts, live games, and mobile-based chat. International marriage agencies are frequently referred to as "mail-order bride" agencies. However, many consider the term "mail-order bride" derogatory and feel it demeans foreign women by comparing them to commodities for sale and by falsely implying that (unlike local women), they exercise no judgement over the men they meet and would marry anyone from a relatively-wealthy country.
Services offered by marriage agencies typically include:
. This law requires certain actions prior to selling a foreign woman's address to a US citizen or resident, including:
When a man finds a woman in whom he is interested, he begins their relationship by writing her; this “pen-pal” relationship is solely for the purpose of finding a spouse. Some men write to a number of different women until deciding on a particular bride. After the two have developed a trusting relationship, the man usually visits the woman in her native country and asks to marry her. Since most women fear marrying a man they have never met, this visit is a crucial part of the mail-order-bride process. The wedding can take place any time during the relationship; for example, men who buy Taiwanese brides sometimes marry only three days after the selection of their bride.
Russian women often believe that their role is to marry and raise children in an enriching environment. Becoming a mail-order bride would give them a husband, financial security and the ability to create their desired family. Their goal is to become successful mothers, not necessarily to fall in love with their husbands. The desirability of a foreign husband was amplified by "American Boy," a major 1990 Russian hit song. Filipino women, on the other hand, often follow in their sisters’ footsteps. Their families are more likely to force them to become mail-order brides because it is what their sisters experienced, and it brings their families economic independence. Love is not always a factor in mail-order marriages. Instead, these marriages can fulfill needs in both parties other than an emotional connection. For women, it may be financial independence and the chance of a better life; for men, it may be domestic capability and companionship.
, Ukraine
, Belarus
and other Eastern European countries are common Caucasian
mail-order bride candidates. Economic and social conditions for women in Russia are a motivational factor in finding foreign arrangements. 52 percent of Russia’s workforce
is made up of women, yet they often hold low positions of prominence in their home country and work jobs with less respect and lower wage (such as teaching or physician positions); and women earn 43 percent of what men do. Finding a foreign husband gives a woman a chance to leave her country and find better economic opportunities. Marriage
is a substantial part of Russian culture
, with 22 the cut-off age for being considered an "old maid". With 4,138,273 more women than men from the ages of 15 to 64, marriage opportunities are slim at home and worsened by the life expectancy
difference between men (59.54 years) and women (73.17 years). Russian and other East European women are sometimes considered more attractive than West European and American women in appearance, dress and behavior, with the reverse being true for men. Despite a worsening economy in the United States and Western Europe, marriage agencies specializing in pairing local women with Western men remain common in cities such as Moscow
, St. Petersburg, and Kiev
.
, malnutrition
and inflation
. However, those who marry foreign men tend to be better-educated than most women from their country or their husband's. However, economic factors are not the only driving factor for women in Asia to enter the mail-order industry. Filipino women often enter the mail-order industry in the hope of marrying abroad, and then sponsoring their family for immigration
. In rare cases women are recruited based on their physical appearance, with an emphasis placed on youth and virginity
. This is found among boutique agencies, most of which cater to wealthy men from other Asian nations.
n countries are said to be popular with men in the United States
and Europe
. Latin American seeking to be mail-order brides wish to marry a man from the United States, Canada or Europe in order to escape the economic and social disadvantages of their home countries. Some women in poor parts of Latin America
are single mother, living on less than $1.25 a day; they feel that marrying overseas will provide for family and/or friends who need assistance in their home country.
Although obtaining a better living standard and higher economic status is a factor in becoming a mail-order bride, it is not the only motivation young women have. They expect to trade love and romance for financial security
and social mobility.
, there are also a number of Asian-Pacific-American men who meet wives from their home countries. The men tend to be older than the women they marry. Men from developed countries have various reasons for desiring a wife from another region of the world. Eastern Europe
an, Asia
n and some Latin American areas are popular for finding mail-order brides.
A 1988 survey done by the University of Texas at Tyler shows that over half of the men who engage in mail-order marriages had been married at least once before; three-quarters of them wanted children. These men ranged from age 35–70, and were usually older than the women they chose. Younger men (under age 30) rarely choose mail-order brides. American men are sometimes attracted to Filipino women because they can generally speak English and the Philippines is the only Asian country that is predominately Christian (besides South Korea). Gender imbalances, with a male majority in such areas as the U.S. states of Alaska
and Texas
, South Korea
, the People's Republic of China
, the Middle East
and the Canadian province of Alberta
are often a reason, because men were unable to find wives in such regions.
Some men are attracted to women from poverty-stricken countries because they believe the sexual division of labor makes the women more likely to be domesticated. In many of these countries, men work and women stay home, tending to the children and the home. According to one of these men, “There is just something in their culture that makes marriage work”. These men like the idea of being the breadwinner and having their wife be the homemaker, something that is not seen as much in Western women because of greater job opportunities. They generally want women who do not want to work outside the home or deviate from their husband’s rules.
, disease
and broken promises.
Older data also showed that marriages with international brides met though mail correspondence had substantially-lower divorce rates than most marriages, although this may be because some wives are unwilling to divorce their husbands for fear of deportation.
“Most mail-order brides... believe that they must remain in abusive situations or else be deported. This is not the case thanks to 1994 Violence against Women Act. Under this law passed in 1994, spouses of US citizens or their children have the right to petition for permanent residency when they meet the following criteria:
(USCIS) reports that "...marriages arranged through these services would appear to have a lower divorce rate than the nation as a whole, fully 80 percent of these marriages having lasted over the years for which reports are available". The USCIS also reports that "... mail-order bride and e-mail correspondence services result in 4,000 to 6,000 marriages between U.S. men and foreign brides each year".
s have traditionally been similar to (but slightly less restrictive than) their US counterparts; for instance, previously not requiring the Canadian citizen to prove minimum-income requirements (as has been a long-standing requirement of United States immigration laws). While there is still no formal requirement for a minimum salary, the sponsor must provide evidence of income in the form of their most recent T4 Income printout from the Canadian Revenue Agency as an attachment to their IMM 5481 Sponsorship Evaluation.
Until recently (2001) Canada's immigration policy designated mail-order brides under the "family class" to refer to spouses and dependents and "fiancé(e)" class for those intending to marry, with only limited recognition of externally-married opposite-sex "common law" relationships; same-sex partners were processed as independent immigrants or under a discretionary provision for "humane and compassionate" considerations.
In 2002, the Canadian Immigration Law was completely revised. One of the major changes was conjugal-partner sponsorship, available for any two people (including same sex couples) who have had conjugal relations together for at least one year. Canadian immigration authorities frown upon conjugal-partners sponsorship for heterosexual couples, and now require the couple to marry before a visa is granted (unless serious reason can be demonstrated why the couple is not yet married).
, mail-order brides come primarily from Mainland China
and Southeast Asia
(especially Vietnam
). The common age range for Vietnamese women is from 20 to 28. On average, Taiwanese men spend USD$10,000 on this type of marriage; however, only USD$500 to USD$1,000 will be received by the bride's family. The remainder is absorbed by marriage brokers of the groom and the bride.
Brides from Mainland China
are known colloquially as dalu mei ' onMouseout='HidePop("42409")' href="/topics/Pinyin">pinyin
: dàlù mèi, "little sister from the mainland"). Marriages and immigration are arranged by licensed marriage brokers. Spousal immigration is the only legal form of immigration from mainland China
to Taiwan
. To the Chinese, dalu mei are not normally perceived as members of the Mainlander minority of Taiwan. Mail-order grooms from China emigrate to Taiwan, although this is much less common. Pro-Taiwan independence
parties (such as the Taiwan Solidarity Union
) have expressed concerns that brides from mainland China (and their children) will adversely influence Taiwan’s political landscape as they acquire citizenship. However, these attitudes are not universal even among pro-independence supporters, and former President Chen Shuibian of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party
made a point of welcoming these brides during his campaign activities in 2004. A local poll suggested that Mainland Chinese brides tend to vote for the same political party as their husbands.
Commentators have noted the emigration of foreign brides from mainland China and Southeast Asia is changing the ethnic composition of Taiwan; mail-order brides and their children outnumber Taiwanese aborigines. Some now consider foreign brides to be Taiwan’s fledging fifth ethnic group, and are interested in observing how Taiwan’s demographics will be gradually changed by this group. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of Vietnamese stores and restaurants in Taiwan operated by Vietnamese brides. The Taiwanese Ministry of the Interior has published domestic violence
-prevention materials in Indonesian
, Vietnamese
and Thai
, and guide to life in Taiwan in Khmer
.
and Japan
also have accepted a large number of foreign brides; in South Korea, many brides are Chinese (the largest group) and Vietnamese. Japan accepts many brides from China, the Philippines and Thailand. They have become common in recent years, especially among rural bachelors who cannot find suitable wives in their small towns. South Korea has a notable gender imbalance, with an excess of available bachelors relative to single women. The implications for the ethnic composition of South Korea and Japan are similar to those for Taiwan, albeit less severe (due to their higher populations).
Mainland China
has become a destination for internal mail-order brides, due to gender imbalances. These tend to come from poorer parts of China, North Korea
, Burma and Vietnam
which are considerably poorer per capita than China as a whole. Trafficking and criminal gangs are involved in the mail-order "business".
India
has considerable mail-order bride activity, mainly within the country but also from Bangladesh
and Nepal
(where per-capita income is less than India as a whole). This phenomenon is projected to become more acute in China
and India
over the coming decades, due to the unnaturally-high number of males born as a consequence of sex selection
via widespread ultrasound prenatal screening. Some estimate the excess male population will be in the tens of millions.
issues a K-1 "fiancée" visa
that can be used within six months of issue and is valid for a 90-day entry into the U.S. The K-1 (and K-2 for accompanying minor children) is classified as a "non-immigrant" visa, although all immigrant-visa checks (i.e., FBI check and medical exam) are required for this visa. While this is issued as a single-entry visa, should the intending spouse return to her country within the 90 days and seek to return again to the U.S. for the purpose of marriage the embassy may issue a second visa. The USCIS reports that approximately 17,263 such visas were issued in fiscal 2001—7988 from Asia and 4714 from Europe (including the countries of the former Soviet Union). It should be noted, though, that the K-1 visa is used by Americans who met partners overseas (and, perhaps most commonly, by recent immigrants to the US). "Mail-order"-style engagements account for a tiny fraction of all K-1 visas. This type of visa application specifies the applicant's fiancé. If the visa holder does not marry the specified fiancé within the validity of the visa, she is required to return to her country of origin. However, if she marries her fiancé she and her husband can apply to obtain "green card
" permanent-resident status with her husband (and possible co-sponsors) promising to support her for ten years (or until she obtains citizenship). This residency status is conditional for two years, after which the couple is expected to apply to have the condition removed. Removal requires the couple prove that they are married to each other in good faith. If the couple has divorced, the immigrant can apply for a waiver to remove the condition. In all cases, supporting evidence is reviewed by the USCIS; this evidence often consists of wedding and vacation photos, love letters, birth certificates of children, and evidence of mutual financial trust (such as joint bank account statements, leases signed by both spouses, bills, insurance policies and other documentation demonstrating a genuine marital relationship). If evidence is found to be suspect, further investigation by the USCIS may be required. This process is intended to prevent would-be immigrants from abandoning their sponsors immediately after obtaining residency, and fraudulent marriages solely for the purpose of immigration. There are exceptions; for example, a woman who is determined to have been a battered wife can self-petition under Violence Against Women Act
provisions. Exemptions are also granted if a woman shows that the marriage was bona fide
and her spouse died.
The parties can also marry before the fiancée enters the United States, in which case the spouse must retain her residence outside the United States and her U.S. citizen spouse (or permanent resident alien) can apply for a permanent residence visa for her. In that case, the visa is processed at the consulate; she is issued a "green card" valid from her date of entry into the United States, although she may also be subject to the two-year condition (as stated above) if the date of entry is less than two years after her marriage date. A K-3 non-immigrant visa can be issued to the overseas spouse to reunite her with her husband while the permanent residency visa (green card) is being processed. The average wait for a K-3 visa (12 months to 2 years), is usually a little longer than the wait for a K-1 visa (8 to 12 months).
.
John Howard
has gained momentum. Initial reactions to the program were mixed. However, during the January 2004 visit to Eastern Europe
by Australian Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs
Philip Ruddock
, Australian-Russian relationships were strengthened while both nations committed to a timetable for reductions in Russian human trafficking
into Australia. The Australian public further embraced its government's new policies following the media frenzy of the Jana Klintoukh case. This case first exploded into the public's view when current-events program Today Tonight
aired footage of a young Russian-born Australian, claiming she was imported via an Internet site and was used as a sexual slave by her "husband" while being confined to his Sydney
home.
attempted to regulate "marriage agencies" in Belarus
and make it difficult for them to operate. He believed that Western men were draining his country of women of child-bearing age. However, as most agencies are being run from outside Belarus (either in Russia, European countries or the United States), he has been unable to stop (or otherwise regulate) this activity.
The New York Times reports, "Every month, hundreds of South Korean men fly to Vietnam, the Philippines, Mongolia, Nepal and Uzbekistan on special trips". Although many of these marriages are successful, in some cases immigrant wives are mistreated, misunderstood and separated from their Korean husbands. One method men use when choosing young girls as wives is "Like a judge in a beauty pageant, the man interviews the women, many of them 20 years younger than he, and makes a choice". The British newspaper The Independent reports, "Last year it was reported that more than 40,000 Vietnamese women have married South Korean men and migrated there." Cambodian women are also popular with Korean men, but in March 2010 the Cambodian government banned marriages to South Korean men.
The sections below focus on trends with respect to Filipina women and reports of abuse by South Korean men.
In November 2009, Philippine Ambassador to South Korea Luis Cruz warned Filipina women against marrying Korean men. He said in recent months that the Philippine Embassy in Seoul has received complaints from Filipino wives of abuses committed by their Korean husbands that caused separation, divorce and abandonment. As language and cultural differences become an issue, the Filipina women are regarded as commodities bought for a price.
(also known as Turkmenbashi) authorized a decree that required foreigners to pay a $5,000 fee to marry a Turkmen citizen (regardless of how they met), and to live in the country and own property for one year. Authorities indicated that the law was designed to protect women from being duped into abusive relationships.
In June 2005, Niyazov scrapped the $5,000 and the property-owning requirements.
On January 6, 2006, President George W. Bush
signed the "International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005" (IMBRA) as part of the H.R. 3402: Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005
. The requirements of the law are controversial, and some commentators have claimed that it presumes that American men are abusers.
In enacting IMBRA, Congress was responding to claims by the Tahirih Justice Center
(TJC), a woman's advocacy group, that mail-order brides were susceptible to domestic abuse because they are unfamiliar with the laws, language and customs of their new home. The TJC insisted that special legislation was needed to protect them. The TJC asked Congress to consider several notable cases mentioned in the Congressional Record
. Critics of IMBRA claim that the TJC failed to ask Congress to consider the relative amount of abuse between mail-order-bride couples and other couples (including the thousands of spousal murders that occurred in the US over the past 15 years).
Two federal lawsuits (European Connections & Tours v. Gonzales, N.D. Ga. 2006; AODA v. Gonzales, S.D. Ohio 2006) sought to challenge IMBRA on constitutional grounds. The AODA case was terminated when the plaintiffs withdrew their claim. The European Connections case ended when the judge ruled against the plaintiff, finding the law constitutional regarding a dating company.
On March 26, 2007, U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper dismissed with prejudice
a suit for injunctive relief filed by European Connections, agreeing with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
and TJC that IMBRA is a constitutional exercise of Congressional authority to regulate for-profit dating websites and agencies where the primary focus is on introducing Americans to foreigners. Additionally, the federal court specifically found that: "the rates of domestic violence against immigrant women are much higher than those of the U.S. population". The judge also compared background checks on American men to background checks on handgun
buyers by stating, "However, just as the requirement to provide background information as a prerequisite to purchasing a firearm has not put gun manufacturers out of business, there is no reason to believe that IMBs will be driven by the marketplace by IMBRA".
An older form of matchmaking is the catalog agency. Women in foreign countries are recruited by an agency, and contacted through the answering of advertisements in local newspaper
s. The agencies then photograph the women and place their pictures and short descriptions in a catalog with other potential brides. After reviewing the catalog a man can identify several women he is interested in, purchase their addresses from the agency and begin writing the women. Once he narrows down his list, he will usually visit the country and meet several potential brides. If he finds a match, he will return home and apply for a fiancee (or marriage) visa
and set a wedding date.
The Immigration and Nationalization Service advises that “in some cases, it may be to a couple's advantage to pursue a K-1 fiancee visa before getting married. In other cases, applicants may find that it is more cost effective to get married abroad and then apply for an immigrant visa overseas. In many cases, the K-1 visa application process takes just as long as the immigrant visa process”. Couples must remain together at least two years. There were 715 female naturalized citizens between the ages of 20 and 29 and 2,057 women of the same age living without US citizenship according to the 2010 US Census, accounting for 11.3% of the female population of that age bracket. “Despite well over 2,000 mail-order marriages a year, there is no information on the amount of mail-order brides entering the US. The purpose of this law is two-fold: to protect the safety of mail-order brides and to prevent fraud”.
Domestic partnership
A domestic partnership is a legal or personal relationship between two individuals who live together and share a common domestic life but are neither joined by marriage nor a civil union...
s, often between citizens of different countries or cultures. A derivative of arranged marriage
Arranged marriage
An arranged marriage is a practice in which someone other than the couple getting married makes the selection of the persons to be wed, meanwhile curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world...
practices, mail-order bride services satisfy the statistical imbalance of men to women in the West and the economic needs of women in the East. Historically, mail-order brides were women who listed themselves in catalogs and were selected by men for marriage. Sometimes the men and women involved were citizens of different countries (e.g. women from European countries moving to the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries), and sometimes they involved citizens of the same country.
Although historically mail-order brides came from well-developed areas to marry men in overseas colonies and frontier lands, the trend has reversed. Recently, the trend is towards women living in developing countries
Developing country
A developing country, also known as a less-developed country, is a nation with a low level of material well-being. Since no single definition of the term developing country is recognized internationally, the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries...
seeking men in more-developed countries. The majority of these women are from Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
, countries of the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and (to a lesser extent) from Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
large numbers of eastern European women have advertised themselves in such a way, primarily from Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
. In the past, international marriage agencies such as Cherry Blossoms allowed women to sign up to be listed in picture magazines; now, the internet has largely supplanted this method. Men who list themselves in such publications are referred to as "mail-order husbands". Nations that often receive mail-order brides are the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
The term "mail-order bride" is both criticized by owners (and customers) of international marriage agencies and used by them as an easily-recognizable term. It has been pointed out that there is a discrepancy between how international adoption
International adoption
International adoption is a type of adoption in which an individual or couple becomes the legal and permanent parents of a child that is a national of a different country...
s are regarded ("saving a child") and how international marriages are regarded ("buying a wife"). It has also been noted that "In feminist writing on mail-order brides, women’s and men’s voices remain absent. Instead, this scholarship assumes a one-to-one correspondence between the male gaze on the Web sites and women’s exploitation as domestic laborers in the home".
History
Mail-order brides were first seen on the American frontier during the mid-1800s. The first recorded business offering mail-order brides was Brooker & Son, who sold "authentic Thai brides". Men from the East were migrating West in hopes of claiming land, farming, establishing businesses and finding gold. Most of these men found financial success in the migration West, but the one thing that was missing was the company of a wife. Very few women lived there at this time, so it was hard for these men to settle down and start a family. They attempted to attract women living back East; the men wrote letters to churches and published personal advertisements in magazines and newspapers. In return, the women would write to the men and send them photographs of themselves. Courtship was conducted by letter, until a woman agreed to marry a man she had never met. Many women wanted to escape their present way of living, gain financial security and see what life on the frontier could offer them. They wanted to become something more than a maid, a factory worker or a schoolteacher; living on the frontier gave them the opportunity to experience hard labor. Most of these women were single, but some were widows, divorcees or runaways.During the late 19th century, references began to appear to an "international marriage market". Key variables determining the relationship between migration and marriage were demographics, legal policies, cultural perceptions and technology. In the early United States, the difficulty and dangers of traveling and the uncertainty of life on the frontier resulted in communities where women were scarce. Imbalances between the number of available women and the number of men desiring partners created a demand for immigrant women. As a result of this imbalance, a new system of "picture brides" developed in predominantly-male settlements. In the early 20th century, the institution of "picture bride
Picture bride
The term picture bride refers to the practice in the early 20th century of immigrant workers in Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States selecting brides from their native countries via a matchmaker, who paired bride and groom using only photographs and family recommendations of the possible...
s" developed due to immigration restrictions. The Japanese-American Passport Agreement of 1907 allowed Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
to grant passports to the wives of immigrants to America. With immigration of unmarried Japanese women to America effectively barred the use of "picture brides" provided a mechanism for willing women to obtain a passport to America, while Japanese workers in America could gain a female helpmate of their own nationality.
Recent developments
"Mail-order brides" are defined as women who meet their spouses through the use of catalogs, agencies or advertisements. The mail-order bride business is a multi-million dollar industry that connects financially-secure men with women from impoverished countries. In some cases, these women later find themselves in abusive relationships due to cultural isolation and lack of education. A primary reason women choose to become mail-order brides is often similar to that of women living in the same country as the man: financial security. It has been shown that the national average of mail-order brides has been significantly lower in Third-World countries during periods of financial growth. The concept of mail-order brides has been a symbol of the economic inequality on a global scale. There are also cultural reasons for entering “the business”; in Russian culture, women commonly marry by age 23. Some Russian men do not want to marry “older” women, so those who are not married by their mid-20s may have little choice but to attract men from other countries. The reasons for seeking out mail-order brides, however, have drastically changed since the 1800s. Originally, brides were obtained for the stability they brought to men on the frontier and for their willingness to work. Today’s brides are acquired more for a man’s need for companionship and to fill a domestic role.International marriage agency
An international marriage agency (also called an international introduction agency or international marriage broker) is a business that endeavors to introduce men and women of different countries for the purpose of marriageMarriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
, dating or correspondence
Pen pal
Pen pals are people who regularly write to each other, particularly via postal mail.-Purposes:A penpal relationship is often used to practice reading and writing in a foreign language, to improve literacy, to learn more about other countries and life-styles, and to make friendships...
. Many of these marriage agencies are based near women in developing countries (such as Ukraine, Russia, Colombia, Brazil, China, Thailand and the Philippines). International marriage agencies encourage women to register for their services, and facilitate communication and meetings with men from developed regions of North America, Western Europe, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. This network of smaller international marriage agencies is often affiliated with web-based international dating sites that are able to market their services on a larger scale, in compliance with regulations such as the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act
International Marriage Broker Regulation Act
The International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 ,, or IMBRA, is a controversial United States federal statute that requires background checks for all marriage visa sponsors and limits serial visa applications...
. International dating sites provide a wide variety of online communication, including instant messaging, email letters, webcam-based chat, phone translation, virtual gifts, live games, and mobile-based chat. International marriage agencies are frequently referred to as "mail-order bride" agencies. However, many consider the term "mail-order bride" derogatory and feel it demeans foreign women by comparing them to commodities for sale and by falsely implying that (unlike local women), they exercise no judgement over the men they meet and would marry anyone from a relatively-wealthy country.
Services offered by marriage agencies typically include:
- Introductions
- Translation of correspondence between clients not speaking a common language
- Excursions, in which a man is introduced to several women interested in marriage
Fraud
There is some incidence of dishonesty, fraud, and poor service among international marriage agencies, and there is debate as to whether proscription or regulation is the better solution to these problems.Legal issues
Marriage agencies are legal in almost all countries. On Jan 6, 2006, the United States Congress enacted H.R. 3402: Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005International Marriage Broker Regulation Act
The International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 ,, or IMBRA, is a controversial United States federal statute that requires background checks for all marriage visa sponsors and limits serial visa applications...
. This law requires certain actions prior to selling a foreign woman's address to a US citizen or resident, including:
- The man must complete a questionnaire on his criminal and marital background.
- The seller must obtain the man's record from the National Sex Offenders Public RegistryUnited States National Sex Offenders Public RegistryThe Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Registry is a cooperative effort between U.S. state agencies that host public sex offender registries and the U.S. federal government...
database. - The questionnaire and record must be translated into the woman's native language and provided to her.
- The woman must certify that she agrees to permit communication.
- A lifetime limit of two (2) fiance visasK-1 visaA K-1 visa is a dual intent visa issued to the fiancé or fiancée of a United States citizen to enter the United States. A K-1 visa requires a foreigner to marry his or her U.S. citizen petitioner within 90 days of entry. Once the couple marries, the foreign citizen can adjust status to become a...
is imposed, with a waiver required for the approval of any subsequent fiance visa.
Meeting process
During the 1980s, before widespread internet access, catalogs were the most popular way to meet potential spouses. Women from all over the world sent agencies photographs and biographies. Although catalogs are still used today, the internet has become the primary search tool for foreign brides. Women set up internet profiles through an agency, and men subscribe to these “introduction sites”. Operators of the agency website may edit the women’s profiles with Photoshop or other photo-editing software. As the owner of one such agency remarked, “if the girls aren’t beautiful, they don’t get on the board”. In some agencies, women pay to create an online account.When a man finds a woman in whom he is interested, he begins their relationship by writing her; this “pen-pal” relationship is solely for the purpose of finding a spouse. Some men write to a number of different women until deciding on a particular bride. After the two have developed a trusting relationship, the man usually visits the woman in her native country and asks to marry her. Since most women fear marrying a man they have never met, this visit is a crucial part of the mail-order-bride process. The wedding can take place any time during the relationship; for example, men who buy Taiwanese brides sometimes marry only three days after the selection of their bride.
Motivations
Mail-order brides have many different motives, depending on the region the brides is from. One common motive is better economic opportunity. Becoming a mail-order bride gives a young woman in an impoverished country the opportunity for a better life, while supporting her family back home. In most cases these young women send food, money, and clothing to their families back home. Living in a developed country would also allow them opportunities they might not have had such as education, a career and health care.Russian women often believe that their role is to marry and raise children in an enriching environment. Becoming a mail-order bride would give them a husband, financial security and the ability to create their desired family. Their goal is to become successful mothers, not necessarily to fall in love with their husbands. The desirability of a foreign husband was amplified by "American Boy," a major 1990 Russian hit song. Filipino women, on the other hand, often follow in their sisters’ footsteps. Their families are more likely to force them to become mail-order brides because it is what their sisters experienced, and it brings their families economic independence. Love is not always a factor in mail-order marriages. Instead, these marriages can fulfill needs in both parties other than an emotional connection. For women, it may be financial independence and the chance of a better life; for men, it may be domestic capability and companionship.
East European women
Women in RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
and other Eastern European countries are common Caucasian
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
mail-order bride candidates. Economic and social conditions for women in Russia are a motivational factor in finding foreign arrangements. 52 percent of Russia’s workforce
Workforce
The workforce is the labour pool in employment. It is generally used to describe those working for a single company or industry, but can also apply to a geographic region like a city, country, state, etc. The term generally excludes the employers or management, and implies those involved in...
is made up of women, yet they often hold low positions of prominence in their home country and work jobs with less respect and lower wage (such as teaching or physician positions); and women earn 43 percent of what men do. Finding a foreign husband gives a woman a chance to leave her country and find better economic opportunities. Marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
is a substantial part of Russian culture
Russian culture
Russian culture is associated with the country of Russia and, sometimes, specifically with ethnic Russians. It has a rich history and can boast a long tradition of excellence in every aspect of the arts, especially when it comes to literature and philosophy, classical music and ballet, architecture...
, with 22 the cut-off age for being considered an "old maid". With 4,138,273 more women than men from the ages of 15 to 64, marriage opportunities are slim at home and worsened by the life expectancy
Life expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
difference between men (59.54 years) and women (73.17 years). Russian and other East European women are sometimes considered more attractive than West European and American women in appearance, dress and behavior, with the reverse being true for men. Despite a worsening economy in the United States and Western Europe, marriage agencies specializing in pairing local women with Western men remain common in cities such as Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, St. Petersburg, and Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
.
Asian women
Many international brides come from developing countries in South and East Asia. A substantial portion of women from the developing countries of Asia join marriage sites because of financial pressures. They post profiles and photos with the ambition of marrying and gaining a stable financial future. The countries the women come from are faced with unemploymentUnemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
, malnutrition
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
and inflation
Inflation
In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
. However, those who marry foreign men tend to be better-educated than most women from their country or their husband's. However, economic factors are not the only driving factor for women in Asia to enter the mail-order industry. Filipino women often enter the mail-order industry in the hope of marrying abroad, and then sponsoring their family for immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
. In rare cases women are recruited based on their physical appearance, with an emphasis placed on youth and virginity
Virginity
Virginity refers to the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. There are cultural and religious traditions which place special value and significance on this state, especially in the case of unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor and worth...
. This is found among boutique agencies, most of which cater to wealthy men from other Asian nations.
Latin American women
Women from some Latin AmericaLatin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n countries are said to be popular with men in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Latin American seeking to be mail-order brides wish to marry a man from the United States, Canada or Europe in order to escape the economic and social disadvantages of their home countries. Some women in poor parts of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
are single mother, living on less than $1.25 a day; they feel that marrying overseas will provide for family and/or friends who need assistance in their home country.
Although obtaining a better living standard and higher economic status is a factor in becoming a mail-order bride, it is not the only motivation young women have. They expect to trade love and romance for financial security
Economic security
Economic security or financial security is the condition of having stable income or other resources to support a standard of living now and in the foreseeable future...
and social mobility.
Reasons for choosing mail-order brides
Men have many different motives for international dating. In the United States, a prospective husband tends to be middle-aged, well-educated and financially sound. While most husbands are CaucasianCaucasian race
The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...
, there are also a number of Asian-Pacific-American men who meet wives from their home countries. The men tend to be older than the women they marry. Men from developed countries have various reasons for desiring a wife from another region of the world. Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n and some Latin American areas are popular for finding mail-order brides.
A 1988 survey done by the University of Texas at Tyler shows that over half of the men who engage in mail-order marriages had been married at least once before; three-quarters of them wanted children. These men ranged from age 35–70, and were usually older than the women they chose. Younger men (under age 30) rarely choose mail-order brides. American men are sometimes attracted to Filipino women because they can generally speak English and the Philippines is the only Asian country that is predominately Christian (besides South Korea). Gender imbalances, with a male majority in such areas as the U.S. states of Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
and Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and the Canadian province of Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
are often a reason, because men were unable to find wives in such regions.
Some men are attracted to women from poverty-stricken countries because they believe the sexual division of labor makes the women more likely to be domesticated. In many of these countries, men work and women stay home, tending to the children and the home. According to one of these men, “There is just something in their culture that makes marriage work”. These men like the idea of being the breadwinner and having their wife be the homemaker, something that is not seen as much in Western women because of greater job opportunities. They generally want women who do not want to work outside the home or deviate from their husband’s rules.
For Eastern European brides
Traditional gender roles of conforming to the economic dominance of men in a marriage and the appreciation and adulation of wives are what fuels American men to seek Russian brides; for some men, American women are too career-obsessed and materialistic.For Asian brides
One man that chose an Asian mail-order bride stated, “I do favor Asian woman...There, women are truer, more loyal and have a mystical air or attitude”.Outcomes
A number of mail-order brides are treated fairly and agree upon fair and just contracts with their husbands, allowing them many liberties and favorable treatment. In other cases, they are subject to abuseAbuse
Abuse is the improper usage or treatment for a bad purpose, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, sexual assault, violation, rape, unjust practices; wrongful practice or custom; offense; crime, or otherwise...
, disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
and broken promises.
Older data also showed that marriages with international brides met though mail correspondence had substantially-lower divorce rates than most marriages, although this may be because some wives are unwilling to divorce their husbands for fear of deportation.
Effects on global economy
Although the industry is growing, the economic effect is still largely limited to the countries from which the brides come. It was estimated that only .4 percent of total United States immigrants in 1996 arrived on marriage or fiancee visas. In 2005 “Cherry Blossom” (the largest mail-order agency in the United States) grossed $500,000.U.S. marriage agreements
U.S. immigration policies for foreign wives are not well-understood, although mail-order bride services provide some information.“Most mail-order brides... believe that they must remain in abusive situations or else be deported. This is not the case thanks to 1994 Violence against Women Act. Under this law passed in 1994, spouses of US citizens or their children have the right to petition for permanent residency when they meet the following criteria:
- Must be legally married to the US citizen or lawful permanent resident batterer.
- Must reside in the United States.
- Must have resided with the US citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse in the United States.
- Must have been battered or subjected to extreme cruelty during the marriage, or is the parent of a child who was battered or subjected to extreme cruelty by the U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse during the marriage.
- Is required to be a person of good moral character.
- Needs to demonstrate that removal from the United States would result in extreme hardship to the self-petitioner or the self-petitioner's child.
- Must have entered into the marriage in good faith, not solely for the purpose of obtaining immigration benefits.”
Divorce rate
The United States Citizenship and Immigration ServicesUnited States Citizenship and Immigration Services
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security . It performs many administrative functions formerly carried out by the legacy United States Immigration and Naturalization Service , which was part of the Department of Justice...
(USCIS) reports that "...marriages arranged through these services would appear to have a lower divorce rate than the nation as a whole, fully 80 percent of these marriages having lasted over the years for which reports are available". The USCIS also reports that "... mail-order bride and e-mail correspondence services result in 4,000 to 6,000 marriages between U.S. men and foreign brides each year".
Canada
Canadian immigration lawImmigration law
Immigration law refers to national government policies which control the phenomenon of immigration to their country.Immigraton law, regarding foreign citizens, is related to nationality law, which governs the legal status of people, in matters such as citizenship...
s have traditionally been similar to (but slightly less restrictive than) their US counterparts; for instance, previously not requiring the Canadian citizen to prove minimum-income requirements (as has been a long-standing requirement of United States immigration laws). While there is still no formal requirement for a minimum salary, the sponsor must provide evidence of income in the form of their most recent T4 Income printout from the Canadian Revenue Agency as an attachment to their IMM 5481 Sponsorship Evaluation.
Until recently (2001) Canada's immigration policy designated mail-order brides under the "family class" to refer to spouses and dependents and "fiancé(e)" class for those intending to marry, with only limited recognition of externally-married opposite-sex "common law" relationships; same-sex partners were processed as independent immigrants or under a discretionary provision for "humane and compassionate" considerations.
In 2002, the Canadian Immigration Law was completely revised. One of the major changes was conjugal-partner sponsorship, available for any two people (including same sex couples) who have had conjugal relations together for at least one year. Canadian immigration authorities frown upon conjugal-partners sponsorship for heterosexual couples, and now require the couple to marry before a visa is granted (unless serious reason can be demonstrated why the couple is not yet married).
Taiwan
In TaiwanTaiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, mail-order brides come primarily from Mainland China
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
and Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
(especially Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
). The common age range for Vietnamese women is from 20 to 28. On average, Taiwanese men spend USD$10,000 on this type of marriage; however, only USD$500 to USD$1,000 will be received by the bride's family. The remainder is absorbed by marriage brokers of the groom and the bride.
Brides from Mainland China
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
are known colloquially as dalu mei ' onMouseout='HidePop("42409")' href="/topics/Pinyin">pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
: dàlù mèi, "little sister from the mainland"). Marriages and immigration are arranged by licensed marriage brokers. Spousal immigration is the only legal form of immigration from mainland China
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
to Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
. To the Chinese, dalu mei are not normally perceived as members of the Mainlander minority of Taiwan. Mail-order grooms from China emigrate to Taiwan, although this is much less common. Pro-Taiwan independence
Taiwan independence
Taiwan independence is a political movement whose goals are primarily to formally establish the Republic of Taiwan by renaming or replacing the Republic of China , form a Taiwanese national identity, reject unification and One country, two systems with the People's Republic of China and a Chinese...
parties (such as the Taiwan Solidarity Union
Taiwan Solidarity Union
The Taiwan Solidarity Union is a political party in the Republic of China which advocates Taiwan independence. It was officially founded on July 24, 2001 and is considered part of the Pan-Green Coalition. Unlike the Democratic Progressive Party, its larger companion party in the Pan-Green...
) have expressed concerns that brides from mainland China (and their children) will adversely influence Taiwan’s political landscape as they acquire citizenship. However, these attitudes are not universal even among pro-independence supporters, and former President Chen Shuibian of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party
Democratic Progressive Party
The Democratic Progressive Party is a political party in Taiwan, and the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition. Founded in 1986, DPP is the first meaningful opposition party in Taiwan. It has traditionally been associated with strong advocacy of human rights and a distinct Taiwanese identity,...
made a point of welcoming these brides during his campaign activities in 2004. A local poll suggested that Mainland Chinese brides tend to vote for the same political party as their husbands.
Commentators have noted the emigration of foreign brides from mainland China and Southeast Asia is changing the ethnic composition of Taiwan; mail-order brides and their children outnumber Taiwanese aborigines. Some now consider foreign brides to be Taiwan’s fledging fifth ethnic group, and are interested in observing how Taiwan’s demographics will be gradually changed by this group. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of Vietnamese stores and restaurants in Taiwan operated by Vietnamese brides. The Taiwanese Ministry of the Interior has published domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
-prevention materials in Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
, Vietnamese
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
and Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
, and guide to life in Taiwan in Khmer
Khmer language
Khmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language , with speakers in the tens of millions. Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious...
.
Other Asian countries
South KoreaSouth Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
also have accepted a large number of foreign brides; in South Korea, many brides are Chinese (the largest group) and Vietnamese. Japan accepts many brides from China, the Philippines and Thailand. They have become common in recent years, especially among rural bachelors who cannot find suitable wives in their small towns. South Korea has a notable gender imbalance, with an excess of available bachelors relative to single women. The implications for the ethnic composition of South Korea and Japan are similar to those for Taiwan, albeit less severe (due to their higher populations).
Mainland China
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
has become a destination for internal mail-order brides, due to gender imbalances. These tend to come from poorer parts of China, North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
, Burma and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
which are considerably poorer per capita than China as a whole. Trafficking and criminal gangs are involved in the mail-order "business".
India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
has considerable mail-order bride activity, mainly within the country but also from Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
and Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
(where per-capita income is less than India as a whole). This phenomenon is projected to become more acute in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
over the coming decades, due to the unnaturally-high number of males born as a consequence of sex selection
Sex selection
Sex selection is the attempt to control the sex of the offspring to achieve a desired sex. It can be accomplished in several ways, both pre- and post-implantation of an embryo, as well as at birth...
via widespread ultrasound prenatal screening. Some estimate the excess male population will be in the tens of millions.
United States
The United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
issues a K-1 "fiancée" visa
K-1 visa
A K-1 visa is a dual intent visa issued to the fiancé or fiancée of a United States citizen to enter the United States. A K-1 visa requires a foreigner to marry his or her U.S. citizen petitioner within 90 days of entry. Once the couple marries, the foreign citizen can adjust status to become a...
that can be used within six months of issue and is valid for a 90-day entry into the U.S. The K-1 (and K-2 for accompanying minor children) is classified as a "non-immigrant" visa, although all immigrant-visa checks (i.e., FBI check and medical exam) are required for this visa. While this is issued as a single-entry visa, should the intending spouse return to her country within the 90 days and seek to return again to the U.S. for the purpose of marriage the embassy may issue a second visa. The USCIS reports that approximately 17,263 such visas were issued in fiscal 2001—7988 from Asia and 4714 from Europe (including the countries of the former Soviet Union). It should be noted, though, that the K-1 visa is used by Americans who met partners overseas (and, perhaps most commonly, by recent immigrants to the US). "Mail-order"-style engagements account for a tiny fraction of all K-1 visas. This type of visa application specifies the applicant's fiancé. If the visa holder does not marry the specified fiancé within the validity of the visa, she is required to return to her country of origin. However, if she marries her fiancé she and her husband can apply to obtain "green card
United States Permanent Resident Card
United States lawful permanent residency refers to a person's immigration status: the person is authorized to live and work in the United States of America on a permanent basis....
" permanent-resident status with her husband (and possible co-sponsors) promising to support her for ten years (or until she obtains citizenship). This residency status is conditional for two years, after which the couple is expected to apply to have the condition removed. Removal requires the couple prove that they are married to each other in good faith. If the couple has divorced, the immigrant can apply for a waiver to remove the condition. In all cases, supporting evidence is reviewed by the USCIS; this evidence often consists of wedding and vacation photos, love letters, birth certificates of children, and evidence of mutual financial trust (such as joint bank account statements, leases signed by both spouses, bills, insurance policies and other documentation demonstrating a genuine marital relationship). If evidence is found to be suspect, further investigation by the USCIS may be required. This process is intended to prevent would-be immigrants from abandoning their sponsors immediately after obtaining residency, and fraudulent marriages solely for the purpose of immigration. There are exceptions; for example, a woman who is determined to have been a battered wife can self-petition under Violence Against Women Act
Violence Against Women Act
The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 is a United States federal law. It was passed as Title IV, sec. 40001-40703 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, , and signed as by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994...
provisions. Exemptions are also granted if a woman shows that the marriage was bona fide
Good faith
In philosophy, the concept of Good faith—Latin bona fides “good faith”, bona fide “in good faith”—denotes sincere, honest intention or belief, regardless of the outcome of an action; the opposed concepts are bad faith, mala fides and perfidy...
and her spouse died.
The parties can also marry before the fiancée enters the United States, in which case the spouse must retain her residence outside the United States and her U.S. citizen spouse (or permanent resident alien) can apply for a permanent residence visa for her. In that case, the visa is processed at the consulate; she is issued a "green card" valid from her date of entry into the United States, although she may also be subject to the two-year condition (as stated above) if the date of entry is less than two years after her marriage date. A K-3 non-immigrant visa can be issued to the overseas spouse to reunite her with her husband while the permanent residency visa (green card) is being processed. The average wait for a K-3 visa (12 months to 2 years), is usually a little longer than the wait for a K-1 visa (8 to 12 months).
Classified and online matchmaking services
Classified listings were a common matchmaking practice for many years. With the advent of the internet online matchmaking websites have proliferated, largely replacing traditional paper-based classifieds. Thus, online matchmaking is an updated form of the American mail-order bride tradition, with the main difference being the method used for broadcasting the personal ad.Arranged marriage
An arranged marriage is one in which the marital partners are chosen by others (usually parents), based on considerations other than the preexisting mutual attraction of the partners. Note that this is not necessarily the same thing as a forced marriageForced marriage
Forced marriage is a term used to describe a marriage in which one or both of the parties is married without his or her consent or against his or her will...
.
Legal issues
Marriage agencies and mail-order bride publications are legal in almost all countries. Legal issues in particular countries are:Australia
Since 2003, the Australian Federal Government's resolve to decrease what was deemed "inappropriate immigration" by then-Prime MinisterPrime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
has gained momentum. Initial reactions to the program were mixed. However, during the January 2004 visit to Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
by Australian Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs
Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (Australia)
In the Government of Australia, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship is responsible for overseeing the Department of Immigration and Citizenship....
Philip Ruddock
Philip Ruddock
Philip Maxwell Ruddock is an Australian politician who is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the Division of Berowra, New South Wales, for the Liberal Party of Australia...
, Australian-Russian relationships were strengthened while both nations committed to a timetable for reductions in Russian human trafficking
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
into Australia. The Australian public further embraced its government's new policies following the media frenzy of the Jana Klintoukh case. This case first exploded into the public's view when current-events program Today Tonight
Today Tonight
Today Tonight is a controversial Australian News and Current Affairs program, produced by the Seven Network and shown weeknightly at in direct competition with rival Nine Network program A Current Affair....
aired footage of a young Russian-born Australian, claiming she was imported via an Internet site and was used as a sexual slave by her "husband" while being confined to his Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
home.
Belarus
In 2005, President Alexander LukashenkoAlexander Lukashenko
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko has been serving as the President of Belarus since 20 July 1994. Before his career as a politician, Lukashenko worked as director of a state-owned agricultural farm. Under Lukashenko's rule, Belarus has come to be viewed as a state whose conduct is out of line...
attempted to regulate "marriage agencies" in Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
and make it difficult for them to operate. He believed that Western men were draining his country of women of child-bearing age. However, as most agencies are being run from outside Belarus (either in Russia, European countries or the United States), he has been unable to stop (or otherwise regulate) this activity.
Philippines
The Philippines prohibits the business of organizing or facilitating marriages between Filipinas and foreign men. The Philippine congress enacted Republic Act 6955 (the Anti-Mail-Order Bride Law) in 1990 as a result of stories in the local media about Filipinas being abused by their foreign husbands. Because of this, Filipinas often use "reverse publications" – publications in which men advertise themselves – to contact foreign men for marriage to Filipina women.South Korea
South Korean men commonly arrange for mail-order brides. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2011 South Korea had 2,041,057 men aged 30-34 (the peak marrying years) compared to 1,863,373 women aged 30-34 and 1,687,376 women aged 25-29. Theoretically, if all Korean men married women their own age there would be only 91.3 women per 100 men; since women are usually slightly younger than their husbands, the ratio is actually in the range of 85-88 women. Consequently, there is a surplus of Korean men, and marriages to women from poorer Asian countries have become commonplace.The New York Times reports, "Every month, hundreds of South Korean men fly to Vietnam, the Philippines, Mongolia, Nepal and Uzbekistan on special trips". Although many of these marriages are successful, in some cases immigrant wives are mistreated, misunderstood and separated from their Korean husbands. One method men use when choosing young girls as wives is "Like a judge in a beauty pageant, the man interviews the women, many of them 20 years younger than he, and makes a choice". The British newspaper The Independent reports, "Last year it was reported that more than 40,000 Vietnamese women have married South Korean men and migrated there." Cambodian women are also popular with Korean men, but in March 2010 the Cambodian government banned marriages to South Korean men.
The sections below focus on trends with respect to Filipina women and reports of abuse by South Korean men.
Frequency of Filipina marriages
The Korea Times reports that every year, thousands of Korean men sign up for matches with Filipina brides through agencies and by mail order. Based on data from the Korean government, there are 6,191 Filipinas in South Korea who are married to Koreans.Matchmaking methods
After contacting a mail-order agency, the majority of Filipina mail-order brides met their husbands by attending "show-ups," a meeting in which a group of Filipino women are brought to meet a Korean man who is looking for a wife. At the show-up the Korean man picks a prospective wife from among the group, and in a matter of days they are married.Motivation
An anthropological study on Filipina wives and Korean men by professor Kim Min-jung of the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Kangwon National University found that these Korean men find it difficult to marry Korean women, so they look for girls in poorer countries with difficult economic circumstances. The Korean men feel that because of the difficult circumstances from which the Filipina women come, cultural differences and the language barrier, they "will not run away". Further, she said, Korean men characterize Southeast Asian women as friendly, hardworking (due to agrarian backgrounds), "docile and obedient, able to speak English, and are familiar with Korean patriarchal culture". Religious factors would lead Korean men who are observant Catholics to opt for Filipinas over other Asian women.Violence against foreign brides
There have been several murders of mail-order brides in South Korea. "On May 24, 2011, a South Korean man stabbed his Vietnamese wife to death while the couple’s 19-day-old baby lay next to her. The man, a farmer, had been matched up with his foreign bride through a broker. In 2010, another Vietnamese woman was killed by her husband a week after they were married. In 2008, a Vietnamese woman jumped from an apartment building to her death after being abused by her husband and mother-in-law."In November 2009, Philippine Ambassador to South Korea Luis Cruz warned Filipina women against marrying Korean men. He said in recent months that the Philippine Embassy in Seoul has received complaints from Filipino wives of abuses committed by their Korean husbands that caused separation, divorce and abandonment. As language and cultural differences become an issue, the Filipina women are regarded as commodities bought for a price.
Turkmenistan
On June 4, 2001 Turkmenistan President Saparmurat NiyazovSaparmurat Niyazov
Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov; , was a Turkmen politician who served as President of Turkmenistan from 2 November 1990 until his death in 2006...
(also known as Turkmenbashi) authorized a decree that required foreigners to pay a $5,000 fee to marry a Turkmen citizen (regardless of how they met), and to live in the country and own property for one year. Authorities indicated that the law was designed to protect women from being duped into abusive relationships.
In June 2005, Niyazov scrapped the $5,000 and the property-owning requirements.
United States
Due to stringent U.S. immigration laws, there have been adaptations of the law and immigration process to provide regulation over immigration flow into the country, and protection for brides once they arrive. “In 1996, Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act... Section 652 of this legislation specifically addresses the mail-order bride industry.” Congress found the following:- There is a substantial ‘‘mail-order bride’’ business in the United States. With approximately 200 companies, an estimated 2,000 to 3,500 men in the United States find wives through mail-order-bride catalogs each year. However, there are no official statistics available on the number of mail-order brides entering the United States each year.
- The companies engaged in the mail-order-bride business earn substantial profits.
On January 6, 2006, President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
signed the "International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005" (IMBRA) as part of the H.R. 3402: Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005
Violence Against Women Act
The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 is a United States federal law. It was passed as Title IV, sec. 40001-40703 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, , and signed as by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994...
. The requirements of the law are controversial, and some commentators have claimed that it presumes that American men are abusers.
In enacting IMBRA, Congress was responding to claims by the Tahirih Justice Center
Tahirih Justice Center
The Tahirih Justice Center, known simply as Tahirih, is a United States-based non-governmental organization that provides pro bono direct legal services and social and medical service referrals to immigrant women and girls who are fleeing from gender-based violence and persecution...
(TJC), a woman's advocacy group, that mail-order brides were susceptible to domestic abuse because they are unfamiliar with the laws, language and customs of their new home. The TJC insisted that special legislation was needed to protect them. The TJC asked Congress to consider several notable cases mentioned in the Congressional Record
Congressional Record
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published by the United States Government Printing Office, and is issued daily when the United States Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks...
. Critics of IMBRA claim that the TJC failed to ask Congress to consider the relative amount of abuse between mail-order-bride couples and other couples (including the thousands of spousal murders that occurred in the US over the past 15 years).
Two federal lawsuits (European Connections & Tours v. Gonzales, N.D. Ga. 2006; AODA v. Gonzales, S.D. Ohio 2006) sought to challenge IMBRA on constitutional grounds. The AODA case was terminated when the plaintiffs withdrew their claim. The European Connections case ended when the judge ruled against the plaintiff, finding the law constitutional regarding a dating company.
On March 26, 2007, U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper dismissed with prejudice
Prejudice (law)
There are two meanings for "prejudice" in legal proceedings; civil and criminal.-Civil procedure:Within legal civil procedure, prejudice is a loss or injury, and refers specifically to a formal determination against a claimed legal right or cause of action. Thus, in a civil case, dismissal without...
a suit for injunctive relief filed by European Connections, agreeing with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Alberto Gonzales
Alberto R. Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic Attorney General in U.S. history and the highest-ranking Hispanic government official ever...
and TJC that IMBRA is a constitutional exercise of Congressional authority to regulate for-profit dating websites and agencies where the primary focus is on introducing Americans to foreigners. Additionally, the federal court specifically found that: "the rates of domestic violence against immigrant women are much higher than those of the U.S. population". The judge also compared background checks on American men to background checks on handgun
Handgun
A handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....
buyers by stating, "However, just as the requirement to provide background information as a prerequisite to purchasing a firearm has not put gun manufacturers out of business, there is no reason to believe that IMBs will be driven by the marketplace by IMBRA".
Mail-order-bride murders
There were four incidents of mail-order brides being killed in the US during the first decade of the 21st century:- In September 2003, 26-year-old UkrainianUkrainiansUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
engineer and mail-order bride Alla Barney bled to death on the floor of her car after her American husband Lester Barney, 58, slashed her throat in front of the couple’s four-year-old son Daniel. Lester fled with Daniel from the scene in the parking lot of the boy’s day-care center; after an Amber AlertAMBER AlertAn AMBER Alert or a Child Abduction Emergency is a child abduction alert bulletin in several countries throughout the world, issued upon the suspected abduction of a child, since 1996...
was triggered, he turned Daniel over to a friend and was taken into custody by police. Alla had been granted a restraining orderRestraining orderA restraining order or order of protection is a form of legal injunction that requires a party to do, or to refrain from doing, certain acts. A party that refuses to comply with an order faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
against Lester a few months before, and had been given temporary custody of Daniel. - Susanna Blackwell met her husband through an international marriage broker called Asian Encounters, and left the Philippines to settle with him in Washington State in 1994. Her husband, Timothy Blackwell, physically abused Susanna, (including one incident in which he choked her the day after their wedding). Susanna reported the abuse to police and obtained a protection order against him. While awaiting divorceDivorceDivorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
/annulmentAnnulmentAnnulment is a legal procedure for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almost as if it had never taken place...
proceedings in a Seattle courtroom months later, Susanna and two of her friends were shot dead. Blackwell was convicted of murdering all three women. - Anastasia King, a young woman from KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
, was found strangled and buried in a shallow grave in Washington State in December 2000. At age 18 Anastasia received an email from a 38-year-old Seattle man, Indle King, from a mail-order-bride website. He flew to her country, and they were married soon after. Two years later, after considerable strife, Indle wanted another bride. He was allegedly unwilling to pay for a divorce, so he ordered a tenant in their Washington home to kill Anastasia. Weighing nearly 300 pounds, her husband pinned Anastasia down while the tenant strangled her with a necktie. Both were convicted of murder. King’s previous wife (whom he had also met through an IMB) had a domestic violenceDomestic violenceDomestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
protection order issued against him, and left him because he was abusive. - Nina Reiser was a Russian-born and -trained obstetrician and gynecologist. She was murdered by her husband Hans ReiserHans ReiserHans Thomas Reiser is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and convicted murderer. He is the creator and primary developer of the ReiserFS computer file system, which is contained within the Linux kernel, as well as its attempted successor, Reiser4. In 2004 he founded Namesys, a...
, a businessman and computer programmer. She had a restraining order against him during their divorce proceedings. Nina was reported missing on September 5, 2006. That month Hans was detained by Oakland police due to suspicions surrounding the disappearance of his wife, and was later arrested for suspected murder. On April 28, 2008 Hans Reiser was found guilty of first-degree murder, and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. On July 7, 2008 Hans led Oakland police to his wife's remains with an agreement to be charged with second-degree murder instead.
Murder by mail-order bride
- In 2002 Tessie Buhawe Spotts (a native of the Philippines) was charged with the slow poisoning murder of her husband, Alfred Spotts, in Newberry, South CarolinaNewberry, South CarolinaNewberry is a city in Newberry County, South Carolina, 43 miles west -northwest of Columbia. The charter was adopted in 1894. In 1890, 3,020 people lived in Newberry, South Carolina; in 1900, 4,607; in 1910, 5,028; and in 1940, 7,510. The population was 10,580 at the 2000 census. It is the county...
. The couple met through an international magazine advertisement.
Lawsuits
- On November 18, 2004, a federal jury in Baltimore, Maryland awarded Ukrainian mail-order bride Nataliya Fox $433,500 ($341,000 of which were punitive damagesPunitive damagesPunitive damages or exemplary damages are damages intended to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit...
) against marriage broker Encounters International and its Russian-immigrant owner, Natasha Spivack. Spivack arranged Nataliya's marriage to an American man with a history of violently abusing women, and who (after being matched with Nataliya) abused her over the course of their marriage. The jury found the marriage broker guilty of fraudFraudIn criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
, unfair and deceptive trade practices, willful and wanton negligenceNegligenceNegligence is a failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances. The area of tort law known as negligence involves harm caused by carelessness, not intentional harm.According to Jay M...
, unauthorized appropriation of Ms. Fox's name and likeness, and defamation. The jury found the mail-order-bride company's owner (Natasha Spivak) liable for failing to tell Nataliya about a federal law that allows foreign nationals to escape abusive marriages without fear of automatic deportation, and for actively misleading her about her legal options. The jury also found EI (Natasha Spivak) liable for misrepresenting that it screened male clients, when it did not; and publicizing Nataliya’s marriage to Mr. Fox as an EI “success” story without her permission, even after she fled to a domestic violence shelter. On April 14, 2006 a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the jury's verdict in full, noting that Spivack's conduct involved "moral turpitudeMoral turpitudeMoral turpitude is a legal concept in the United States that refers to "conduct that is considered contrary to community standards of justice, honesty or good morals." It appears in U.S. immigration law from the nineteenth century...
".
- On March 26, 2007, the United States District CourtUnited States district courtThe United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...
for the Northern District of Georgia upheld IMBRA against constitutional challenges brought by an international marriage broker, European Connections and Tours. After initially issuing an ex parteEx parteEx parte is a Latin legal term meaning "from one party" .An ex parte decision is one decided by a judge without requiring all of the parties to the controversy to be present. In Australian, Canadian, U.K., Indian and U.S...
temporary restraining order against the law, the federal judge was persuaded (after hearing arguments) that entering the restraining order was wrong. Instead, he found that "IMBRA is highly likely to reduce domestic abuse – and may actually save lives".
- In 2006, an ad-hoc group of dating companies sued the federal government to overturn IMBRA in the Southern District of Ohio. After a period of litigation, the plaintiff group withdraw its lawsuit prior to trial.
International marriage process
The most successful form of international marriage agency is the internet dating site. These sites offer services such as email, translation, gift services or selling addresses of women interested in meeting men. Men either pay a monthly fee for membership (to contact as many people as they like) or pay a per-address charge.An older form of matchmaking is the catalog agency. Women in foreign countries are recruited by an agency, and contacted through the answering of advertisements in local newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s. The agencies then photograph the women and place their pictures and short descriptions in a catalog with other potential brides. After reviewing the catalog a man can identify several women he is interested in, purchase their addresses from the agency and begin writing the women. Once he narrows down his list, he will usually visit the country and meet several potential brides. If he finds a match, he will return home and apply for a fiancee (or marriage) visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
and set a wedding date.
21st century
Although the mail-order bride industry has been established for centuries, many changes have been made in how it operates.Increase in international marriages
In 1970, 34 Asian brides were issued fiancee-petitioned visas for entry into the United States; by 1983, the number of fiancee-petitioned visas issued to Asian brides had increased to 3,428. The number of marriage agencies increased as well. In 1986 there was an estimated 100 mail-order agencies in the United States; that number increased to an estimated 200 agencies by 1992.Visa regulations
In order to bring a spouse into the United States, Form I-130 must be filed (an immigrant petition on behalf of a relative). After that, a K-3/K-4 & V-1/V-2 Entry Visa for Spouse must be filed.The Immigration and Nationalization Service advises that “in some cases, it may be to a couple's advantage to pursue a K-1 fiancee visa before getting married. In other cases, applicants may find that it is more cost effective to get married abroad and then apply for an immigrant visa overseas. In many cases, the K-1 visa application process takes just as long as the immigrant visa process”. Couples must remain together at least two years. There were 715 female naturalized citizens between the ages of 20 and 29 and 2,057 women of the same age living without US citizenship according to the 2010 US Census, accounting for 11.3% of the female population of that age bracket. “Despite well over 2,000 mail-order marriages a year, there is no information on the amount of mail-order brides entering the US. The purpose of this law is two-fold: to protect the safety of mail-order brides and to prevent fraud”.