''The purpose of this Hub is to facilitate mature and intelligent debate on the marriage scam phenomenon, manifested through the lodgement of spouse visa applications by women from a poor third world country to wealthy countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, only for reasons of emigration and financial betterment and these motivations do not accord with the policies of such visa.


This type of ‘marriage’ is contrived to achieve specific social and personal goals. This problem can now be categorised as a global phenomenon by reference to the plethora of internet resources, copious volumes of personal stories from the victims of marriage/visa scams and the defensive migration laws and policies of many Western countries. This does not even include posts in languages other than English, not to mention victims who have not posted online.


In this context, the Philippines is a country which has gained an international reputation for leading the forefront on the proliferation of marriage/visa scams aimed at wealthy Western countries. Although the Philippines is not the only country which is an active participant in this phenomenon, it is a major contributor to the extent that it characterises and epitomises the Philippines from the perspective of the West. This article does not seek to explicitly or implicitly portray ‘all’ Filipinas as participants in this phenomenon; rather it examines the cultural traits which are common amongst a large number of Filipinas. This article does not seek to create or perpetuate negative stereotypes of Filipinas.


It must be stated that stereotypes may be limiting to people, but it must also be conceded that stereotypes are only created and perpetuated through the proliferation of common experiences, which then act as cultural signifiers. But ultimately, this article does not exist as a cultural attack on the Philippines and its people; rather, its purpose is to facilitate debate of a cultural and global phenomenon that is now too large to ignore and is causing defragmentation of the Philippines internally and the devastating flow-on effect to many Western countries.


The proliferation of internet cafes in the Philippines where young Filipinas flock to in droves to seek out communications with foreign men capable of sponsoring them for emigration and financially supporting them and their extended family members, is a clear manifestation of this phenomenon. Indeed, this hobby has transformed into a social custom in recent years, existing as a national past-time amongst young Filipinas, leading to foreign men being invited into financial remittances, or vacations in the Philippines culminating in physical relationships, with the ultimate goal for many being a fiancée visa out of the Philippines.

According to data obtained from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas by INQUIRER.net, 24,904 Filipinos married foreigners in 2006, up 18% from 2005’s 21,100, which was already an increase of 11.4% from 2004’s 18,944. This totals 64,948 in the 3 consecutive years. According to Minda Valencia, Director of Migrant Integration and Education Office, Filipinas account for 89.2% of these unions. The same set of data shows that Americans comprise the biggest foreign spouses of Filipinos at 126,638 or 40.24 % of the 309,745 foreigners who married Filipinos from 1989 to 2006. This was followed by Japanese at 94,792 or 30.60%. Australians were a far 3rd at 25,073 or 8.09%. The rest of the nationality groupings are: Canadians at 12,401 or 4%; Germans at 11,307 or 3.65%; Taiwanese at 6,950 or 2.24%; British at 5,780 or 1.87%; South Koreans at 4,582 or 1.48%;and New Zealanders at 2,233 or 0.7%.

These statistics clearly challenge any refutals which attempt to undermine the prevalence of this phenomenon or deny the cultural and socio-economic reasons which drive Filipinas to procure relationships and marriage with foreign men.


In this context, there is a lack of international understanding of the dichotomy between what is known as ‘poverty stricken’ and ‘attaining a higher standard of living’. The very definition of being ‘poverty stricken’ would mean that someone is without food or shelter and lacks the basic necessities for physical survival. Cultural trends which are widely accepted and practiced in the Philippines point to the desire to attain a higher standard of living and procuring wealth as being the underlying motivation of most Filipinas who procure relationships with foreign men in order to emigrate, rather than pure poverty.

The Filipina intends to show loyalty to her parents and siblings by relying on someone else’s money so that they do not have to work and can attain the ‘good life’ through a form of financial and social dependency. These inner motivations are manifested through the perpetration of marriage and visa scams targeted at foreign men. Some Filipinas have even admitted on public forums that in ‘sacrificing’ themselves in marriage or prostitution to foreign men, they are hailed as ‘heroes’ by family and country.

This very same notion of personal and social sacrifice also leads many Filipinas to seek employment as ‘domestic servants’ in wealthy countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Singapore. Rather than being motivated by a genuine desire to work as ‘domestic servants’, these Filipinas are often guided by an overwhelming desire to meet wealthy men and gain access to their homes to procure a personal and sexual advantage as well as having the ability to remit money home to the Philippines to financially support their relatives. In this way, this situation serves a dual purpose for many Filipinas.


Marriage and visa scamming has now become synonymous with the Philippines to the extent that it has become a cultural signifier. Filipinas tend to shun their own Filipino men as suitable marriage material, as their own men are generally financially ill-equipped to facilitate the social transitions that the Filipinas desire for herself and her extended family members. This is indicative of a subconscious form of racism and social and biological rejection of their own kind.


The Filipina ‘scams’ foreign men into marriage by projecting a hyperbolic, stylised and false image of herself in order to appeal to these men. This image is usually presented as one which is unconditionally loving and accepting, non-materialistic, simplistic, passive and most significantly, very sexually eager. From the perspective of the foreign men, these qualities may seem lacking in genuine Western women whom are unlikely to have any ulterior motives for entering into relationships with their own men and whom do not exhibit those characteristics. Thus these men find the (false) appeal of Filipinas very alluring as they present themselves as an ideal ‘alternative’. Most of these men at first are unaware of this false persona, which is why relationships of this kind appear at first to be harmonious, at least at the stage when the Filipina is yet to attain her goal(s).

Posts by Filipinas and purveyors of Filipina dating or mail-order bride websites often attack women of other races, particularly American women, as seen in this excerpt:
“Many Westerners, especially American men who get married to a Filipino girl swear that Filipina women make among the best wives in the world. On the other hand, the American women continue to be aggressive, demanding and are not comfortable to be in their natural role as a woman. So what has made the Filipina women popular among the Western men recently? In this site, we will explore the qualities that make the Filipina women so desirable.”

Source: paulaaquino23.hubpages.com/hub/datingmarryingfilipinagirl


Sources such as these are indicative of the common misconceptions perpetuated by Filipina about Western women in order to appeal to foreign men and are intended to disguise the underlying financial motivations of the Filipina and her culture. In a sense, the Filipina presents a hyperbolic image of herself and projects her true self onto the Western woman.

The cultural reasons which drive Filipinas to seek out foreign men for marriage have given rise to a concept known as ‘cultural prostitution’. In his article entitled ‘Mail-Order Brides: Gilded Prostitution and the Legal Response’ published in the Journal of Law Reform in 1994, Eddy Meng refers to Filipino women whom enter the mail-order industry in the hope of marrying abroad, and then sponsoring their family for immigration. The Philippine government’s legislation of the Mail-Order Bride Law (Republic Act No. 6955) on June 13, 1990 continues to be ignored by its people.


Indeed, ‘prostitution’ is the act of selling oneself (usually undesirably) to procure a benefit. Using this definition, the underlying motivations of gaining a visa and financial betterment by many Filipinas in entering into marriages with foreign men is to be regarded as a form of ‘cultural prostitution’. They would not have entered into such ‘marriages’ had those underlying motivations been absent. In this way, the Filipina is selling herself as a prostitute, albeit a cultural rather than an actual one. This is a concept that the Filipino people are unwilling to accept and they perpetuate such ingrained cultural traits as socially acceptable.


The marriage scam will inevitably lead to the spouse visa application scam. In this way, the micro issues of the Philippines and its people have found their way into the international context and becoming a macro international social and legal problem.
Studies and statistics have indicated that there is a high volume of spouse visa applications from the Philippines to many wealthy Western countries as opposed to visas for general skilled migration. Large numbers of Filipinas deliberately seek out foreign men to enter into relationships with, as a means of instigating social and economic mobility.


When assessed from this perspective, such spouse visa applications do not accord with the true legislative and policy intentions which underpin them. In situations where one party is genuine and the other is not, it would be correct to label the whole of that visa application to be lacking in authenticity and as amounting to migration fraud.

The underlying motivations of the Filipino people in emigrating is having such a global impact that many wealthy Western countries resort to defensive strategies to stem this global flux. At least in Australia, the government has acknowledged this trend and have implemented guidelines for assessments of visa applicants based upon inter alia, country of nationality, background, age and gender; these guidelines being to safeguard the integrity of the visa application process. The Australian government classifies young Filipinas as a ‘high risk’ category, so much so that such visa applicants are heavily scrutinised and are imposed a ‘no further stay’ condition when granted a temporary visa to Australia. These laws and policies are not ‘racist’ in that they do not aim specifically at Filipino people; rather, these measures arise out of the Australian government’s recognition of the cultural and economic motivations of the general Filipino people, which are backed up by research and statistical data.


When looked at from the macro perspective, it is clear that the internal problems of the Philippines and its people have made a global impact, to the extent that the Philippines and its people have become heavily dependent upon Western countries for sustenance, indicating an attempted replacement of sound internal economic policies. In 2009, about US$17.348 billion in remittances was sent to the Philippines by overseas Filipinos, higher than in previous years, according to GMA News. Indeed, this parasitical dependency has drained the financial and legal resources of many wealthy developed countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia. This problem is not one which is only caused by the Philippines, but it is necessary to concede that the Philippines is a major contributor to this phenomenon.


Countries such as the United States and Australia find themselves devoting huge financial resources to assess spouse visa applications which are not genuine, having to face the economic reality that the majority of newly acquired citizens do not retain their money internally but opt to remit money back home in order to sustain the Philippines; as a well as a host of other legal problems which emerge after the Filipina has settled in her host country. These include the fabrication of ‘domestic violence’ by the Filipina against her sponsor in order to obtain permanent residence to have her sponsor removed from his home (at least in the United Kingdom) and the tendency to fabricate false charges of child sexual abuse and/or domestic violence against her sponsor in order to obtain an advantage in property settlement matters following the dissolution of marriage.

( Pls note, only in the UK can a sponsor be removed from his home. My estranged wife let me keep my home because there was no money in it, otherwise she would of taken it. It may of been temporary but, the trauma of being removed from my home on the basis of lies would of been devastating.)

The personal impact upon many men around the world is evident through the plethora of internet resources which feature personal stories of men whom have recounted horrific experiences in marrying and sponsoring Filipinas.

Many of these men have lost all of their life’s savings, freedom, extended family and in some cases, their lives.

These personal stories cannot be regarded as isolated incidents because of the frequency of their occurrence and the common thread which runs through them: that Filipinas are primarily motivated to marry for emigration and financial reasons. Thus, what had appeared initially as a too-good-to-be-true compatibility eventually turned out to be a marital disaster.''

http://ulyssesulysses.hubpages.com/h...ng_experiences

I just want to state here and now, Im on no hate campaign. I have experienced some of the stuff ive bolded out. It has not put me off marrying another filipina. Im an active member of filipinocupid

The difference this time Im being ultra careful. Unlike being ultra stupid in the past.

I do hope at least someone will find this info interesting and worth bearing in mind. Yes, we have many sucessful partnerships on here but, over the years I have been a member here, many many more have come and gone, for whatever reason.