To marry an American... Today the mail order brides service is a substantial branch of the marriage
industry, which develops day by day. More and more men turn to marriage
agencies in search of a mail order bride. More and more female
representatives of the former USSR-countries try to find their happiness
overseas. This issue is directly connected to immigration problems and
is a matter of concern for many Russians on both sides of the ocean.
According to the Service of Immigration and Naturalization, from 100 to
150 thousand women of various countries, including USA, Canada, Europe
and Australia, annually turn to marriage agencies in search of a foreign
husband. An overwhelming majority of these women are natives of
Southeast Asia, especially of Philippines, Russia and other republics of
the former Soviet Union. The majority of Asian brides are Philippine
women, in spite of the fact that the "brides by mail" service was
considered to be illegal there for many years and was forbidden.
Recently international marriage agencies have switched their attention
to women from Russia and republics of the former Union. Last year's data
suggests that 69 of the 153 registered marriage services focus on them
(two months after the research was carried out the number soared to
202). A significant percentage of brides in their lists are Ukrainian.
In general, the marriage agencies that specialize in selection of
brides from abroad could be subdivided into two categories. The first
includes "Mail order brides services" (representatives of them prefer to
be called "services of international correspondence"), offering their
clients names, photos and addresses of women in printed catalogues or on
the Internet. Agencies do not take money from the women who provide
their data. The men who wish to contact women from the list pay from $2
to $5 for each address.
The second way for an American to meet a potential "overseas" wife is
through e-mail or clubs of pen-friends. These services are usually
free-of-charge. Men and women send in their profiles and emails, stating
which qualities they want to see in their future partners. Some large
correspondence clubs are:
,
RussianBrides.com. It is possible to find data there about more than
10,000 women, which are looking for a husband or a long-term partner. As
such services are carried out through the Internet, their participants
are usually older and more educated than those who are "ordered" by
mail, and they live in more advanced countries, such as Japan or Russia.
