A mail-order bride is a woman who lists herself in catalogs and is selected by a man for marriage. In the twentieth century, the trend was primarily towards women living in developing countries seeking men in more developed nations. Men who list themselves in such publications are referred to as "mail-order husbands", although this is much less common.
As of 2002, there were an estimated 100,000-150,000 mail order brides, worldwide.
The term mail-order bride has been criticized by international marriage agencies, who nevertheless continue to use it as an easily recognizable term. Women of Asian descent have also criticized the term, which they consider stigmatizing to women in such relationships. Consequently, some researchers have rejected the term.
Demographics
Around 100,000 to 150,000 women advertise themselves as mail-order brides, globally. Of these, around 4,000 to 6,000 are married to American men every year, according to INS estimates. More mail order brides originate from the Philippines than any other country, in spite of the illegality of mail order brides in the Philippines.
According to Robert Scholes, in a sample of 6000 mail order brides, 76% were of Asian origin, while 28% originated from former Soviet Union countries such as Russia and Ukraine. A smaller portion were from Latin America. The majority of the American men who married foreign wives were White, highly educated, and successful.
Of the foreign brides given residence status in the United States in 2002, 50% were from East Asia (mainly China, Vietnam and the Philippines) 25% were from European countries (namely Russia and Ukraine), and 5% were from Latin America.
Owing to the large number of single men in rural Japan, mail-order brides from the Philippines became common in the 1990s, and in 2006 the number of such marriages peaked at 12,150 in 2006. Although the number of marriages has dropped to less than 4,000, Filipinas still make up the largest number of foreign brides in Japan.
Motivations and reasons
East and Southeast Asia
Many international brides come from developing countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia, and occasionally from South Asia as well. The countries the women come from are faced with unemployment, malnutrition and inflation. However, economic factors are not the only driving factor for women in Asia to enter the mail-order industry. In some cases women were 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. During the 1990s, the majority of Asian mail-order brides came from the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Taiwan, Macau, South Korea, Hong Kong, and China.
In 2022, Monica Liu published findings which question the common assumption that mail-order brides in East Asia are often seeking marriage to escape poverty. She found that many marriage agencies in China cater to women from wealthy backgrounds, many of whom were already in relationships with wealthy Chinese men. Liu found that in many cases, wealthy Chinese women sought Western, especially White American husbands because they are perceived as more masculine, physically attractive and better able to satisfy their emotional and sexual needs than Chinese men. However, for the wealthiest Chinese women, the lower income of their foreign boyfriends was sometimes an impediment to marriage.
According to Ericka Johnson, In Taiwan, many Taiwanese men seek Southeast Asian women as mail-order wives because they prefer hard-working women who will accept the drudges of daily housewife chores, while Taiwanese women reject this traditional view of a woman's role in marriage. For this reason, Taiwanese women seek to marry Western mail-order husbands.
Philippines
Filipino women often entered the mail-order industry in the hope of marrying abroad, and then sponsoring their family for immigration.
Eastern Europe
Economic and social conditions for women in Russia and other Post-Soviet states are a motivational factor in finding foreign arrangements. The rise of Russian mail-order brides happened immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In testimony before the United States Senate, Professor Donna Hughes said that two thirds of Ukrainian women interviewed wanted to live abroad and this rose to 97% in the resort city of Yalta.
Russia
In 1999, it was reported that women in Russia earned 43 percent of what men did. Marriage is a substantial part of Russian culture, with 30 years being the age at which a woman is considered an "old maid".