Many people think that the mail order bride system all began with the Internet and the online dating websites. Not quite! In fact, this increasingly common way of finding a soul mate goes much further back.
Let's start by saying that actually; the term 'mail order bride' is a rather controversial one today, because it portrays women as commodities being bought and sold. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth, and the vast majority of mail order bride businesses are nothing more than marriage agencies. The women post their profiles and say what kind of husband they are looking for, and male clients pay the agencies to get in touch with the women they like. That's all there is to it.
Having said that, we are very much aware that there actually is a huge problem with trafficking of women, both online and off. For this reason, we strongly recommend that you always use well known and reputable mail order bride sites to be sure.
The origin of mail order brides
Way back in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the western United States were still being settled, the male settlers were having a hard time finding a bride and began to correspond with women living far away. At the same time, many European women and some American women as well decided to travel west, hoping to find a new life and the man of their dreams. Smart entrepreneurs soon saw the business potential in this and the mail order bride system was born, allowing women to announce their desire to get married and look for a husband that way.
Mail order brides became popular once again at the end of World War II, when American soldiers started corresponding with women back home that they had never met before. The trend grew and by the 80's international dating and marriage agencies, such as Cherry Blossoms, became an increasingly popular way to find a bride. Of course, the Internet was still a long way off at that time, and the mail order bride system was run by means of catalogues and plain old snail mail, which made the whole business of finding a foreign bride much slower than it is today.
The first mail order brides in the 1980s were Asian brides, mainly from Thailand and the Philippines. This gave rise to the mistaken association of the mail order bride system with western men shopping for Asian women. Since the fall of the communist Soviet Union, more and more Eastern European women have become mail order brides, particularly Russian brides, Ukrainian brides and Moldovan brides. In recent years, there have also been a big number of Latin brides from Central and South America who are also looking for a foreign husband this way.
Nowadays, it is not just the less well off countries that mail order brides are coming from, and a considerable number of women from developed nations such as Japan, Sweden and Canada, are also joining in the quest for foreign love.
Mail order brides are today more popular than ever
The Internet has changed so many aspects of modern life, and the international marriage and dating scene is no exception. Today it is easier than ever for men and women from all over the world to get in contact and look for love. The online opportunities range from the usual social networks, to online dating sites like FriendFinder.com, Amigos.com and date.com.
The online age has seen a huge boom in the mail order bride business, and while Cherry Blossoms still remains one of the largest online dating sites, many other popular ones have also sprung up, such as Elena's models and LoveMe.com (which is in fact now distancing itself from the 'mail order bride' label).
Today, you could be forgiven for confusing mail order bride websites with online dating sites, such as Filipina Heart, ThaiLoveLinks.com or Sessile.com. These two types of matchmaking website do have a lot of similarities of course, but they differ in one important aspect: the women on the mail order bride sites are looking for marriage and a lasting relationship, while the women on online dating sites are typically looking for all kinds of relationship, from casual to serious.
Every woman will have her own particular reasons for wanting to marry abroad. However, some critics of the mail order bride business insist that many women are 'forced' into this by the difficult economic situation in their own countries. At the same time, men who use mail order bride websites need to be on the lookout for potential scammers posing as legitimate women seeking a husband.
US IMBRA law aims to help keep women safe
Overseas relationships pose a different kind of risk from the ones people are normally accustomed to. Men risk being scammed out of their money or having their ego hurt, while in the case of women meeting up with and deciding to marry a foreign man can be a much more dangerous affair. In order to try and make things safer for foreign women marrying Americans, the United States passed the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (IMBRA) in 2005. IMBRA was designed to make these international relationships more transparent and provide women with access to more information about the men they are dating.
The IMBRA law states that online dating agencies and mail order bride websites based in the US have to ask their male clients for background information, including criminal records, divorces etc., and make this information available to the women these men correspond with. If you are a US citizen, you will also have to be able to show that your bride has been given all this information about you right from the start of your relationship. Failing to do so will mean that you will probably be denied an immigration visa for your future wife when you apply for it. This is why you have to make sure you are using an IMBRA compliant online dating agency at all times.
A lot of the online dating agencies were very wary of the IMBRA law at first, and thought it would damage their business, but this has not been the case. In actual fact, IMBRA also indirectly makes online dating safer for men too, because it deters scammers who would rather not have to go through a longer process to contact the victims they plan to scam.
We think that IMBRA is a great idea and are very much in favor of this law, because, after all, women have a right to know as much as possible about the man they plan to marry and live with far away from home. Marriage agencies are in the business of helping create happy couples and IMBRA goes a long way towards that goal.
In today's world of high speed online communication, it is more common than ever to date and marry foreign women. Cultural diversity is increasingly becoming the norm, rather than the exception, and more and more people are looking for love in faraway countries. While you do need to be careful about whom you befriend when using mail order bride services, this system is giving thousands upon thousands of couples the opportunity to meet up and find love in places that they never before thought possible.
Garrett Williams is the owner of several web sites that help men find Garrett Wiiliams is the owner of several web sites that help men find latin-russian-asian-brides.com Foreign Brides (or mail order brides as they are sometimes called) for marriage.
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