Mail order brides face risky business

Document Tools

Contact: Jen Marchbank, 778.782.7607; jmarchba@sfu.ca
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 604.291.3210

All may not be fair in love and marriage — if you happen to be a mail order bride. Jen Marchbank, director of explorations in arts and social sciences at SFU Surrey, says women who become mail order brides typically have little information about their rights and could face exploitation.

Marchbank studies the mail order bride industry and has a project underway called Mail Order Brides: Causes, Experiences, and Policy Responses in North America. Her research to date raises concern about an industry that is thriving, thanks to the internet.

“Unlike many U.S. states, the industry is unregulated in Canada. In this country, there are no specific rules to control agencies, which work transnationally, and no specific provisions to ensure that brides know their rights,” says Marchbank, the former co-chair of the U.K. national body for women’s studies.

Recent changes in Canadian marriage law regarding common law spouses could also have implications. “This might aid unscrupulous men in deceiving women into entry to Canada with a promise of marriage — then not being able to leave the man without threat of deportation.”

Marchbank says the industry has become an option for some third world women due to the structure of immigration into Canada. In some cases, mail order marriages are “easier for these women than to meet the education and qualification standards required by Canada’s immigration laws.” she says.

Marchbank says a striking number of women are coming from certain areas of the Philippines — Cebu and Mindanao — which are being developed by the Philippine government for sex tourism.

Marchbank will talk about the industry, the experiences of brides and husbands and the politics of immigration and marriage, at SFU Surrey’s open house on Saturday, Sept. 9 at 2 p.m. (room 3090).