Race, space, and agency in the international introduction industry: how American men perceive women’s agency in Colombia, Ukraine and the Philippines

Abstract

The international introduction industry, more commonly known as the ‘mail order bride’ industry, is often portrayed in American media as a conduit of human trafficking or a ploy by women from ‘third world’ countries to gain access to American citizenship. This study addresses how men participating in the international introduction industry perceived the industry and the agency/sincerity of women who participate in it across three different geographic spaces, namely Ukraine, Colombia and the Philippines, and how these perceptions often adopt racialized discourses that portrays white Ukrainian women as sexy ‘scammers’, while women of color are more likely to be portrayed as victims of poverty and patriarchy. Based on empirical data collected on romance tours within all geographic spaces with male participants, I suggest that men’s racialized assumptions regarding women’s intentions within the industry, as well as what type of agency they possess, are heavily based on tropes of the third world as backwards, traditional, and static.

Keywords:

• Intimacy
• marriage
• migration
• race

Acknowledgements

I would like to begin by acknowledging Dr. Vonzell Agosto with her help with numerous drafts of this article. I am also thankful to Dr. Maria Hwang and Dr. Monica Liu for looking at drafts and providing me with great feedback. In terms of my theoretical grounding, I would like to thank Dr. Rhacel Parreñas, Dr. Vrushali Patil, and Dr. Caroline Faria. Finally I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and Dr. Pamela Moss, the editor of Gender, Place and Culture, for their thoughtful comments that helped bring my article to another level.