[quote=Casca] the foreign bride route is for those who can’t compete, or don’t want to, in their own culture.[/quote]
I think there is something to this, but it’s an incomplete statement. I think in many cases the “foreign bride route” is not about competition, per se, but rather about what you “think” you’re going to have to put up with (thus, kind of a control/freedom issue, for lack of a better word).
For example, I have a friend that’s married to a woman from Latvia. Always told me he’d never marry an American woman. Why? In his view – and I don’t entirely disagree – American women tend to have inflated expectations of what marriage should entail relative to many women in other parts of the world. Fairly or unfairly, that’s probably the case, in general terms. So, he’d date American women, but would never marry one. And he had lots to choose from as he makes a lot of cake and is quite charming – so this was definitely not a competitive issue. So, now he’s almost ten years into it with a couple of kids and everything’s fairly copacetic – he has no real complaints. Things have worked out pretty much as he planned, but… he did note the following (I’m paraphrasing): “Every year that passes, she becomes more Americanized in small ways, which is unavoidable. So, I’m still happy with my decision, but the difference between her value system and that of my friends’ (American-born) wives shrinks a little as time passes.”
Here’s my point: While marrying a non-American woman for the reasons my friend did may make some men happier for a period of time, that particular aspect of “marginal contentment” will likely subside over time. There’s no free lunch.
