More than a quarter of a million women have been sold as wives and baby-makers in South East Asia, but they are getting a raw deal in health care and social inclusion.
A PhD study undertaken by Queensland University of Technology nursing researcher Yung-Mei Yang has found that foreign wives often suffer low mental and physical health, and may suffer domestic violence or enter prostitution to make money.
Ms Yang surveyed more than 200 foreign brides living in Taiwan, most of whom were sold from Vietnam and Indonesia.
She said they were difficult to find, because their in-laws often hid them away from the public eye.
"It's a new phenomenon of the last 10 years in Korea and Taiwan, where men can't find a wife, so they buy one," Ms Yang said.
"From 1990 to 2007, 130,000 foreign brides were married to men in Taiwan. Around 89,000 of those wives came from Vietnam legally, but many more illegally."
Ms Yang said the young women sacrificed themselves to help their families, who were very poor and would receive money through the marriage.
"The men are often from a lower level of society and are usually quite old, while the average age of their foreign wives is 21," she said.
"They pay around AU$6000 to a marriage broker to select a wife from as many as 100 candidates.
"The men want the women to have a baby, especially a boy, to carry on the family line, and these women may have a high birth rate.
"The women are treated very well during birth and pregnancy, because babies are highly sought, but their health is very poor at other times, and if they have not had a baby, they are rejected."
Ms Yang said the wives she spoke with felt alienated and had great difficulty in adapting to their new culture, arriving in the country alone and unable to speak the local language.
"There is a stigma against foreign wives and they are not equal in the marriage," she said.
"Domestic violence is a big problem.
"They are not allowed to work, because they are on a spousal visa, not a working visa, and they may end up working as prostitutes."
Ms Yang said the foreign wives had a lower level of health compared to local women and had a difficult time accessing health care.
"They often suffer psychosomatic syndrome and may report that they cannot sleep or suffer bodily pain, when in fact it is a symptom of their anxiety and isolation," she said.
"So it is important when providing health care to these women that nurses pay attention to women who complain of pain.
"There may also be discrimination in patient-nurse/doctor relationships in these countries where foreign brides exist. The women are often ignored by doctors and nurses, who are sometimes afraid of them.
"We need culturally sensitive health care, because culture is changing quickly and becoming more multi-cultural in South East Asian countries."
Ms Yang's study was funded by the National Science Council of Taiwan.-Queensland University of Technology
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#1 But wait, who actually gain profit of those poor foreign wives?
I was married in my early twenties with a Taiwanese man by our choice, love, and destiny at the end of the 20th century. He is an educated-loving gentleman who fathered my two kids.
Slowly but sure, I got understood about those foreign brides poor destinies. Actually these happen everywhere around the globe. MEN BUY WIVES In Taiwan these wives are usually so victimized, discriminated and cheated. Those marriage agencies got the business mushrooming, those lonely poor-old men got their dream wives who had applied the vacancy for better future if not escaping from rural poor families and lined up by hundreds through their agencies, those families could survive their offspring and got surnames exist on the family trees, those city-halls got their population firmly kept so the future of this country GNP and or GDP got stabilized after the anxieties of local women reluctance to produce babies, etc, etc.
Most of those foreign conservative wives with their best of strengths, confidence, eastern family culture and religion suffer in silence through discrimination, racial prejudice, zero job prospects, marital abuse, in laws abuse not to mention their fights against poor lives and illiteracy among neighbors, working place, and society at large till the kids grown up or even as long as they breathe on this unfriendly earth. I think they are heroes to this country, so please change your statement that they are sold, usually they do it to survive in this world, Is that a sin to exchange their lives through those services? Hey, it is not prostitution, it is legal marriage. Remember as human beings we are so depend on each other since day-one on earth just to survive. Please stop looking down on them even by your sentence, as citizens, new immigrants, not to mention Adam and Eve` s descendants, legally they are just as equal as you. They shall apply by their own concern, and as an Indonesian woman, I believe they are never meant to be sold, and by my investigation those fee is relatively small for buying a wife. Do your Math by raising a baby to their adult age in the rural areas in Vietnam, Indonesia, or other developing countries in Asia such as The Philippines or Thai. The marriage agents collect the fee to keep the business running. Marriage in Asia is so holy, we need even the simplest ceremonies, and to cover those spending, the marriage fee is definitely charged. You are an Asian too, where is your common sense as Chinese or as an intellectual? Will you or your family feel appreciated by just a simple wedding ceremony to bless your far away wedding and to say good-bye? O God!