What’s a mail-order bride?

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A mail order bride is a woman who joins a service to be matched with a man from a more developed country. Many come from poor countries and seek a better life. Men often choose younger, subservient women. Courtship is involved, and a law imposes strict controls on the process.

A “mail order bride” is a term often used to refer to a woman who joins a service designed to put her in touch with a man from another, usually more developed, country. The title “by correspondence” refers to the fact that these women used to publish their personal data in catalogs that foreign men could consult. Today, however, a typical “mail order bride” would go through an online matchmaking service.

Many mail order brides come from countries like Russia, the Philippines, and the Ukraine. These countries are quite poor and many women want a better life in a more economically developed country, such as the United States, Canada or Australia. Men interested in such a bride are often relatively wealthy men who have been divorced or unsuccessful with women in the past. In many cases, they decide to prosecute a woman from a less developed country because they believe these women will be subservient to them, as opposed to more independent women from their home countries. They also often choose significantly younger brides, often as late as their 20s or 30s.

Although in the past, a mail order bride might have gone on to marry a man she had never met before, today a courtship process is typically involved. Normally a man interested in finding this type of bride will purchase a subscription with one or more agencies that will allow him to meet and communicate with foreign women. He will then travel to the country where the agency is based and meet many of the women there. He can go on private dates with women of interest to him and can even propose marriage. Women can be selective and do not have to marry the first man who asks; however, many do, simply because they want to leave their homeland.

Problems with mail order marriages have led to close scrutiny of the mail order bride movement in the United States, and a law that went into effect in 2006 called the “International Marriage Broker Regulation Act” imposes strict controls on a man pursuing an order to bride match. For example, she must disclose her criminal and marital past, she will be checked for sexual offenses and the woman must agree to communicate with each specific man she wishes to contact her.




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