MAIL ORDER BRIDES marriage brokers
The marriage brokers do not see themselves as flesh-peddlers; they sell photos and addresses. After that, the couples are generally on their own. Instead, the brokers describe themselves as a new breed of entrepreneurial matchmaker: mail order brides have become big business. "It's always been done, but in the past it was so-and-so knows so-and-so who arranges marriages -- it was a family affair, not writing off for a catalogue," says Mr. Burrows, referring to the traditional matchmaker. The business succeeds on the bulk sales of pictures and addresses of mail order brides, generally from poor countries. The mail order brides agencies tout the testimonials of satisfied customers but generally keep no statistics. Immigration officials say it is impossible to separate the number of mail order brides from foreigners who met their American husbands the old-fashioned way.
MAIL ORDER BRIDES - No Regulatory Ties That Bind
And the trade in hope for the lovelorn is largely unregulated. "It's a perfectly legitimate business -- it's a market," said Richard Kenney, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. "There are women who would love to come here, and there are men in the United States who don't seem to be able to find what they need in the local market." That mail order brides market has changed dramatically in recent years, with women from the former Soviet Union now dominating the rosters of businesses who once worked primarily with women from the Philippines and Korea. Peru, Poland and China are other major new sources of prospective mail order brides. Mail order bride brokers say the customers complain that American women are too aggressive, too demanding, too devoted to their own careers to put their husbands' needs first. Though they include teen-agers and men in their 70s, the typical one is middle-aged, middle-class, divorced and quite amenable to the notion of taking care of mail order brides who need help -- and will look up to him in return.
