Manila concerned with “show-up” bridal tours

With the red tape nearly completed, newly-married Monica Alcantara from the Philippines is set to join her husband in Australia in a few weeks. They met on an Internet dating site two years ago, and romance blossomed over the webcam.
“He was always so respectful online,” recalled the vivacious 40-year-old of their cyberdates, according to the Asia News Network.
She was married before to a Filipino who left her after finding a job in the Middle East.
Her Australian husband is 24 years her senior and they had met four times in the Philippines before marrying in Manila earlier this year. He then returned to his hometown in Western Australia while her visa was being processed.
International cyberspace romances via social networking and dating sites are spurring a surge in Filipinas marrying foreigners, according to the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), an agency under the president’s office.
There has been a threefold rise in Filipinos migrating for marriage over the past 20 years.
Canada is one of their favored destinations.
Ottawa says that, in 2006, about 45,000 women arrived as spouses, but it has no data on how many were brides found through the Internet or were part of an arranged marriage.
Some 23,927 Filipino spouses, overwhelmingly women, went through the CFO’s predeparture registration programme in 2007, the latest year for which figures are available, ANN reported.
The commission believes the numbers dipped slightly last year and this year because of the global recession, but will pick up strongly again.
For many Filipino women, marrying a foreigner - and typically a far older one - from a wealthy country is a hard-nosed decision to seek a secure economic future for herself and her family.
The CFO believes widening access to the Internet has been a key factor in the recent phenomenon.
And with seven of the top 10 nationalities for foreign spouses coming from either English-speaking countries or those with a high standard of English comprehension, communication is not a problem for the Filipinos.
Filipino spouses of foreign nationals have to attend a counseling and guidance programme run by the CFO, which looks for signs of mail-order brides, as part of the Philippines’ anti-human trafficking effort.
Matching Filipinas to foreigners as a business in the Philippines is banned under an ineffective 1990 law hobbled by - among other things - the reluctance of witnesses to testify in criminal cases and the hazy jurisdiction of cyberspace. “We’re drafting a Bill to amend the law to bring it up to date,” said CFO emigrant services officer Cherry Veniles.
The rise in websites operating “show-up” tours to the Philippines for foreigners to choose brides is a particular area of concern for the CFO.
“Meet the beautiful exotic women of the Philippines...where age is a plus for men, Philippine women look at older men as more desirable,” is the pitch of one American matchmaking website organising tours to the Philippines and countries in the former eastern bloc. It charges $1,795 for a seven-day tour to Cebu.
The commission estimates that one in 10 of its “clients” is a mail-order bride. “Five years ago, the average age was 26 to 35 years; now it is more 20 to 25,” said Veniles. She attributes much of that trend to the influence of the Internet.
While there are plenty of stories of abused Filipino brides, CFO counsellors admit there are happy endings too.
And as one blogger put it: “If the goal is to stop marriages between Western men and Filipinas who meet over the Internet, you might as well forget it. Globalisation is here and you cannot stop it.”  — ANN
Meanwhile, the German news agency DPA said South Koreans - often in advanced middle-age from rural areas - are leading the rise in the marriages of foreigners to Filipinas.
And when it comes to attracting a potential spouse, South Korean soap operas seem to be the best way to a South- East Asian bride’s heart.
Over the last decade, thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodian women have left their homes to marry South Korean husbands, lured into dubious unions by dreams of financial security and glitzy, city lifestyles in a modern Asian nation.
Cambodia, alarmed by a report that 1,760 Cambodian women had left the country in 2007 for brokered marriages in South Korea, slapped a ban on all marriages to foreigners in April 2008, lifting it only in December after putting in place restrictions on the nuptials trade.
‘Korean men have demographic problems in their own country, particularly in finding wives for rural men who are mainly from the lower-income groups,’ said John McGeoghan, a human-trafficking expert for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Cambodia.
‘In the marketing of this exercise, the Cambodian women are looking at Korean soap operas and thinking they’re going to a glamorous life.’
It was an IOM report on the exodus of Cambodian brides that sparked Phnom Penh’s eight-month foreign marriage ban.
There might be nothing wrong in principle with impoverished women from rural Cambodia or Vietnam choosing to migrate through marriage to South Korea, an industrialized, high-tech country with a rapidly greying population and a lack of womenfolk on the farms.
But the Asian foreign brides business has been a source of disillusionment and outright abuses.
‘Part of the reason this is an issue is because it’s broker arranged, so they come in and two guys might see 100 Vietnamese girls, and they choose the one they like and are encouraged to sleep with the woman that night,’ said Andrew Bruce, IOM’s Bangkok-based regional representative for South-East Asia.
IOM estimates that some 100,000 Vietnamese women have been brokered to Taiwanese husbands over the last decade.
There are some 170,000 brides from mainland China in Taiwan, according to government figures, though the real figure may be closer to 270,000, according to non-government estimates.
A broker charges each would-be husband $5,000- 20,000 dollars for a foreign bride, arranging the marriages. In Taiwan, there are stories of Vietnamese ‘brides’ being used as maids by their new mothers-in-law or shared among several brothers as common chattel. 

A foreign bride’s guide to marrying a canadian

Will the marriage take place in or out of Canada?
Where the marriage is performed will affect whether it is recognized by Canadian authorities as valid in Canada. It also may affect what you can do if you wish to obtain a divorce or separate from your husband if the marriage is not successful.

If you get married in Canada, can you stay in Canada permanently?
Your marriage does not entitle you to stay. Even if you are married in Canada, you must still be sponsored to become a permanent resident. Only when you are a permanent resident, can you stay. 

Can your husband have more than one wife at the same time?
No. In Canada, your husband can only have one wife. Canada does not recognize other kinds of marriages recognized in some countries. Be sure that your partner is free to marry you under the laws of Canada. If he is not free to marry you, he will not be able to sponsor you, even if you believe yourself to be married within your religious beliefs and culture.

Will you be sponsored?
You need to be sponsored in order to become a permanent resident, also known as a landed immigrant. In order to sponsor you, your husband will have to sign a sponsorship agreement with the Canadian authorities agreeing to sponsor you and any family members you are bringing with you. Do not assume that your dependents automatically will gain entry along with you. Each person must be approved for entry.

Does your husband have a legal obligation to apply for your sponsorship?
No. When you are planning to marry from overseas, your husband does not have an obligation to sponsor you to come to Canada. Work out the sponsorship details with him before your marriage ceremony, or you may find yourself unable to come to Canada while still being legally married. Your husband has to be a permanent resident or Canadian citizen to sponsor you. He must also be 18 years old or older and must be living in Canada when you become a permanant resident. Once your husband has sponsored you, he has certain legal obligations but he does not have to sponsor you. 

What are the legal responsibilities of your husband as a sponsor?
Your husband as the sponsor has to support you financially for three years under the immigration law. Even if your husband does not know his responsibilities or obligations as a sponsor, he will not be excused from fulfilling them once he signs a sponsorship agreement.

What are your obligations as a sponsored person?
As a sponsored person, you do not have additional responsibilities to your husband. This means that you are not legally obligated to do what your husband says or what he wants because he is your sponsor. Legally you do not have to bear his children or take care of his parents if you do not want to do so. You have the same responsibilities as any other permanent resident or Canadian citizen.

What does your husband expect of a wife?
You should find out if your husband has any cultural expectations of you as a wife. Discuss what the family roles will be, who will be doing the cooking and cleaning, and what the sexual expectations in the marriage will be. Finding out about things in advance can prevent many misunderstandings and fighting. Asking detailed questions will also help screen the prospective spouse and determine the real intentions behind the marriage proposal. 

What are your rights in marriage?
You have all basic human rights and your husband has the same rights. You have the same rights in marriage as you have as an individual citizen. You have the right to be free from abuse. 

Do you have a legal responsibility to care for your in-laws?
No, you do not have a legal responsibility to care for your husband’s parents. Before marrying, ask whether the in-laws will be living with you and what your husband expects you to do for them. Will you be caring for his other children and his aging parents? Ask questions and get answers. 

Do you have to have children?
There is no legal obligation for you to bear children in marriage. In Canada, women have a legal right under the law to reproductive choice. This means that you may choose if and when to bear children or not to bear any children. You are entitled to medical care and to use contraception to prevent pregnancy. These are legal rights under Canadian law. You have the right to be alone with your doctor and to discuss your body and how to handle childbearing issues. Under the privacy laws of Canada, your doctor cannot tell your spouse what you talked about unless you agree. 

After your marriage, if you have children from a previous relationship, will they be allowed to come with you to Canada?
Your children will have to be sponsored by your husband.

For more information go to http://www.lawforforeignbrides.ca