So the other sort of interesting article on page four of Thursday’s Bangkok Post was about Thai women marrying western men. This subject always gets a big reaction from readers of this blog so lets do this.
I usually get comments calling me racist or someone who likes to bash foreigners each time I post on news and statistics about Thai women/farang men in Thailand. I guess I must take responsibility for the actions and feelings of other people, or must accept that amateur psychologists can tell from the way I write that I really share all those prejudice against farang men. So get ready with your attacks because here come some fresh statistics.
The Bangkok Post had a story titled “Women looking for western husbands need legal advice”. The main point was that Thai women who marry western men need to know their legal rights in foreign countries so they don’t get abused or taken advantage of. The story came up because of a seminar held at Rangsit University about cross cultural marriages. Someone named Ms. Kanokrat Nimsamoot Booth was interviewed and talked about her new website at thaiforeignspouse.com that was setup to help Thai women needing support in foreign countries. She was quoted as saying that the main problem she hears about is that foreign husbands have affairs and want a divorce even when they have kids together, and the women don’t know how to work the legal system to get support from them.
You might remember that post I did a while ago about the epidemic of Thai women marrying foreign men. That was the post that got so many mean comments. I wrote that after I saw a news report on TV about a study in Udon Thani about Thai women/foreign men marriages. Well, the consultant who did that study, Somkid Homnet, was at the seminar at Rangsit University and presented some details on his study.
First statistic was that 5,700 foreign spouses from 33 countries live in Udon Thani province. Now this number is much lower than the number of Thai women/farang men marriages that were reported on that TV show I saw. I am guessing that the 5,700 number is only those foreign spouses who are living here and not traveling back and forth. Maybe they get that number from immigration records and it is only those who have Thai wife visa. I know many foreign men never get that kind of visa but instead have a tourist, business, or retirement visa. Like I said I am just guessing about what is behind the big difference in numbers, but it makes sense because they also reported that the average monthly income those men have is 100,000 baht – monthly income is something you have to report for a Thai wife visa and I don’t think they would have any other way of getting that statistic except from visa applications at immigration office.
Another set of numbers was the total number of Thai women married to different nationalities residing everywhere in the world which included 50,000 German men, 30,000 French, 30,000 Americans, 25,000 Australians, 10,000 Britons, 8,742 Swedes, 7,937 Taiwanese, 3,000 Austrians, 2,891 Finns and 1,086 Danes. Those numbers are kind of interesting when you think about Australia has a much smaller population than the U.S. but nearly as many marriages to Thai women – I guess we are really big in Australia.
That was about it from the story. Sort of interesting but nothing too offensive to my dear sensitive readers, was it?
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April 10th, 2011 at 10:50 am
Not surprising Australia has very different immigration laws. The US has a serious immigration problem with Mexico so that is a real political football. However,the children seem to turn out very well. Since there are two Thailand populations In Europe the same thing applies.
According to the CIA handbook the population is 66751175Mil
the median age for females 35.2
Not a population takeover by any means. Your attitude is the same as many other racial and cultural changes. The US has Middle Eastern refugees with very different customs than Western or Asian cultures. The large Mexican immigration has caused a lot of political problems . Also Immigrant have a problem in the US because of the State sovereignty A license in one state does not automatically apply to another in many cases; much different than many countries.
*https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/th.html
April 10th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
Don’t worry. There are Western man who share your views. Even someone from Germany like me. But as far as i know Thais there have their specialized lawyers already.
At least in some places
April 10th, 2011 at 6:17 pm
Thanks…I think. But I didn’t express any of my views in this post, just reporting on a news story.
April 11th, 2011 at 12:26 am
Prejudiced against foreign men…all this time, I thought you were just quite perceptive.
Interesting column. Thank you.
April 11th, 2011 at 7:46 am
Interesting story. I’m not surprised that Australia has higher rates. It’s so much closer to Thailand than the US.
I thought the farang number would be higher than what the report said. I suspect that it may seem higher to me because it’s more noticeable, just like people in the US may think there are more Muslim immigrants in the country than there actually are. For instance, they may see a report on US Muslims on the news and then promptly think that the Muslims are taking over.
Anyway, I guess it’s up to me to be the “racist” because I have always thought it a thoroughly nauseating site to see these old, fat, hairy, men in shorts and tank tops all over some poor bar girl from Isaan. I’m not old, fat, and hairy but even so, I don’t think I could ever have a serious Thai girlfriend because I would be too self conscious of being perceived the way I perceive most Thai/Farang “couples”.
April 11th, 2011 at 9:22 am
Amazing, I actually think this is an on-point article. The strongest message is that vulnerable Thai women should be protected against foreigners with bad motives intending to abuse or take advantage. It is far easier for foreigners to take advantage of girls from poor backgrounds, but a lot of well educated but family oriented Thai girls are potentially vunerable too. I had to tell my gf to be careful of job ads for English teaching positions overseas as she quite fancied that a few years ago. There are lots of ‘traps’ out there. Thai people are very special and you can see that when you go to a Thai community in a different country. In Hong Kong, my gf and I had a Thai massage and the massage lady walked us to the correct bus stop to get back home. That is small but special.
For Thai New Year, everyone should be thinking in a positive way if possible, about others, the future and themselves. I seriously doubt Thailand will introduce an anti-foreign non-marrying law for senior foreigners but anything is possible in this great country. if you live in a country, you must abide by the laws, as you choose to live there. I wouldn’t live in a country where drinking is outlawed, I love a tipple.
Statistics don’t mean much without analysis of other fields of data but it does seem the Ozzie’s are number 1 as is Udon Thani. I do wonder why but does it really matter??
Spread some love this week Asiansweetheart.
April 11th, 2011 at 12:14 pm
That is interesting, returnrant, about your nice experience with Thai community in Hong Kong. I can tell you that I saw terrible behavior by Thai people in Los Angeles. I was lucky when I went there because I had some good friends take care of me. But I saw many other Thai people come to Los Angeles and get taken advantage of very bad by Thai people who had lived there for a while. It was very common for them to work in Thai restaurants and the owner would take their passport and tell them they would get the proper visa so they could work legally and take money for doing it, then never do it and threaten them that they would go to jail for working illegally and overstaying if they went to the police. That had nothing to do with marriages but those people sure did need legal help.
April 11th, 2011 at 12:22 pm
I am Australian and have a beautiful Thai wife I met here (Australia) through working together. My wife had permanent residency when we met and we are the same age(6 months difference). In Australia an interracial marriage barely raises an eyebrow and I think it is unfortunate that there is a stigma attached by some people, however as Mark said an old, hairy farang with a cute young girl saddens me too.
April 11th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
I don’t feel anything against someone who is old and hairy. We all get old, and some people like hairy…on men at least ;-)…although smooth hairless skin is the ideal for Thai men now days, which I find a little too boyish and too similar to desirable feminine traits for my own tastes, but that’s another story.
April 13th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Well the web has this vid from Thailand’s got talent
http://www.noob.us/entertainment/thai-idol-2011-wtf/
April 13th, 2011 at 11:58 pm
For once, I thought the title was “Thai Women Marrying Western Men Need Serious Help”
Just a thought, I’m curious about what happened if the case was “Thai Women Marrying Western Women Need Legal Help”.
Do we still have an issue with “old” and “hairy” with that?
April 21st, 2011 at 2:36 am
Here’s what I see in the U.S. Most married couples in the U.S. both work to support their households, especially now the economy is so bad. However, most Thai wifes either have no education, or not enough education and not much in English skills, so finding a job to help out the household in pretty slim. Most that who do work, usually find work in a Thai restaurant, which doesn’t pay much, so there is usually some discord in the family. Also I see too much interplay between Thai women here giving advice to each other that has nothing to do with reality. Causing more discord. I also see that a lot, if not most, of Thai’s kind of flock together rather than trying to assimilate into the American way of life. Causing more discord. The Thai wifes I see here that actually try to assimilate with American society, really try and improve their English and their education seem to be much happier than those who don’t. As far as legal help, it’s hard to find legal help if you don’t speak the language or have enough education to understand any legal actions that would apply. In the U.S. there are more than enough attorneys willing to help solve any marital problems, for a small retainer of course, but unless you can find one that speaks Thai, good luck.