Web site aims to help mail-order brides

[Ban Hammer 13,347]

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada can be a bewildering, even frightening place for immigrant women who arrive as mail-order or Internet brides, but now they have a new Web site to help smooth the transition.

While the Canadian government says it does not track where foreign brides come from or how they met their Canadian spouses, those who work with immigrant women say they are seeing more and more brides who connected with their husbands online -- through matchmaking Web sites as well as chatrooms.

However, they often have little knowledge about where they will be living, what the local society is like or what legal rights they have in Canada as a new bride.

"We were seeing more and more foreign brides coming to us asking for help," said San San Sy, of Changing Together, a center for immigrant woman in Edmonton, Alberta, which helped launch the Internet help site www.lawforforeignbrides.ca.

"The dream is for them to access the information before they come (to Canada)," she said.

Sy said foreign brides don't know where to find support and

many are often shy or wary of seeking it. Others don't know their legal rights within a marriage or whether or not they have to have children.

"Sometimes the bride comes not knowing that she will be the

live-in nanny to take care of aging parents," Sy said.

Some brides, she added, have seen e-mailed photos of the house they will live in -- but once they arrive are surprised to discover the house is in a small, remote town or in a rural area several kilometers from the nearest neighbor.

The adjustment is hardest on women who end up living in remote areas and don't have a car to get around.

For example, Sy said the number of mail-order brides in increasing in Fort McMurray, the booming northern Alberta town of 64,441 that is the center of Canada's huge oil sands industry -- where men easily outnumber women.

"A lot of them are very scared," Sy said, adding many women

just want to blend in and don't want to "lose face" back home.

Sy said that while there are no hard statistics -- only anecdotal evidence -- that Canada is attracting more foreign brides, the country is seen as a place of opportunity where people can build a good future.

In that sense, the tradition of mail-order brides, which goes back more than a century to when lonely Prairie farmers would advertise for a spouse, has changes little.

The federal immigration ministry 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.

"We don't break it down," said Danielle Norris, a spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada in Ottawa.

"To us, as long as it's a bona fide and legitimate marriage, we wouldn't track how they got married."

Meanwhile, Sy said they don't often hear from happy brides but the unhappy ones are usually frustrated over the time it takes to get sponsorship papers or how long their spouse takes to file them.

She said they also don't realize the length of time it takes to be allowed to work legally in Canada, she said.

The Web site is funded by the Alberta Law Foundation and managed by the Legal Resource Center, which is affiliated with the University of Alberta's Faculty of Extension department.

The site also aims to help women who come to Canada through

an arranged marriage, who do not feel safe in their marriage,

or those already married to a Canadian and need more information about sponsorship.

link

[Kathryn41 3,205]

When I still lived in Canada I worked as the assistant to the Member of Parliament for our riding. A lot of our work involved immigration and working with new immigrants. I recall a number of times dealing with immigrant families and newly arrived wives who were trying to find a way to adapt to their new country. It was there I first realized the courage it took for someone to give up everything with which they were familiar to try and embrace a new country, a new home, a new life. Canada offers a lot of services to help immigrants adapt - from free ESL courses to classes in community college or Community Centers on 'how to . . (open a bank account, get a driver's license, etc.). It still isn't easy and I know that many struggle, especially in the smaller or more rural centers where there isn't the same cultural diversity. I think the website is a good idea. Immigrants are an asset to a country - many come with a determination to work hard and contribute to their new home - and the majority do just that. Anything that helps them to become successful and self-sufficient is in the best interest of everyone - the country and the immigrants. This is one area where the US fails badly.

Quite a few years ago Canada realized that the current 'home grown' crop of workers with a zero population growth could not support the aging population and that immigrant workers were necessary to keep the country and its various social support programmes vibrant and intact. Immigration means that Canadians don't have to worry about the Federal old age security programmes or pensions running out of money as there are new workers arriving to keep the system working. Everyone contributes and everyone benefits. Attracting immigrants is so popular in fact, that the community in which I used to live, debated long and hard on creating a new position of Immigrant 'Attraction' Officer - whose job would be to to try and attract immigrants to that community. It didn't pass in this year's tight budget, but is still on the books for future years.

Edited March 17, 2008 by Kathryn41

[mawilson 2,133]

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada can be a bewildering, even frightening place for immigrant women who arrive as mail-order or Internet brides, but now they have a new Web site to help smooth the transition.

If Canada is a "frightening, bewildering" place for these women, what are the chances

they can actually read English or have a clue what a web site is or how to access one?

[Niels Bohr 72]

Geezes. Someone can profit from brides. Amazing.

[Ban Hammer 13,347]

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada can be a bewildering, even frightening place for immigrant women who arrive as mail-order or Internet brides, but now they have a new Web site to help smooth the transition.

If Canada is a "frightening, bewildering" place for these women, what are the chances

they can actually read English or have a clue what a web site is or how to access one?

6 feet of snow may be scary when they've never seen snow

[mawilson 2,133]

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada can be a bewildering, even frightening place for immigrant women who arrive as mail-order or Internet brides, but now they have a new Web site to help smooth the transition.

If Canada is a "frightening, bewildering" place for these women, what are the chances

they can actually read English or have a clue what a web site is or how to access one?

6 feet of snow may be scary when they've never seen snow

6 feet of snow is scary even when you have seen snow