Passport Bros: The Illusion of Finding Love Abroad

“Passport Bros” are Western men who decide to go abroad, often to South America or Asia, to find a traditional wife. For some, it’s a brilliant strategy to find a loyal woman spared from feminism. For others, it’s disguised sex tourism. “Passport Bros” are far from an isolated case. In the West, millions of men secretly dream of finding their rare gem abroad. But they don’t always look towards Asia or South America; often, they have one destination in mind: Eastern Europe.

Why Eastern Europe?

For many Western European or American men, the Slavic woman represents the ultimate feminine ideal. If you type “find a wife in Eastern Europe” on Google, you will find 150 million results, with pages of matchmaking agencies arranging marriages with Belarusian women or blog articles giving you ten reasons to look for a wife in Ukraine. But are these men right to think that the ideal woman is at least 2000 km away from them?

The Three Main Reasons

1. Physical Attraction

Any male tourist who has spent holidays in the Czech Republic, Poland, or Ukraine before the war will tell you: Slavic women are gorgeous. When walking down the street, you find 10 out of 10s at every corner. Eastern European women are often slim, have fine features, and dress neatly.

2. Cultural Attraction

Eastern European women are often perceived as more traditional, more respectful, more loyal, more family-oriented, and more submissive than Western European women. They are seen as less influenced by feminism, materialism, individualism, and consumerism that characterize Western societies. For these men, an Eastern woman is a faithful housewife who dreams of marrying to start a family and raising her children by her side.

3. Strategic Attraction

Eastern European women are often perceived as less demanding, less selective, less capricious, and less complicated than Western European women. Why? First, because they come from poorer countries, so a moderately wealthy man in France would be considered rich in Ukraine. Secondly, because Eastern women are seen as less feminist and thus do not have the level of demands that many men consider too high in Western women.

The Reality Behind the Fantasy

But are these reasons based on reality or on fantasies? Are Western men right to think they have a better chance of finding a wife in Eastern Europe than in Western Europe?

Beauty: Fantasy or Reality?

When I did my research, this was the most used selling point by matchmaking agencies. Eastern European women are often slim, have fine features, and dress neatly. It’s no coincidence that many fashion magazine models come from Eastern Europe. However, this beauty is often idealized, and expectations can be disappointed by everyday reality.

Values: More Traditional?

Are Eastern European women more traditional? A 2019 study compared the views of different countries on gender equality. In France, 93% of women believe that gender equality is very important. In Slovakia, this figure drops to 76%. In Hungary, it reaches 90%. In Eastern Europe, women are less feminist or less egalitarian than in the West, but not by much, and the difference is decreasing over time. For example, in Hungary, 80% of young people believed in traditional marriage in 1991. By 2019, only 25% did.

Strategic Attraction: Less Demanding?

Are Eastern women really less demanding? A researcher, Lore Ciser, studied matchmaking agencies promising Western men to find them a Slavic wife. She discovered that the typical client profile is often a well-educated man who earns a good living and seeks a wife to marry and start a family. The women, on the other hand, are often over 30, sometimes already have children, and are almost always divorced. They are educated and often reject local men whom they see as macho, unfaithful, irresponsible, and often alcoholic.

Slavic women are not a mysterious species. They are like any other women, generally attractive, aware of it, and often hoping to move away from the traditional, patriarchal culture in which they grew up. They can sincerely love in return. It is indeed possible for a Frenchman to find a high-value woman in Belarus, Ukraine, or Poland, and build a relationship and have a happy family with her. However, it must always be kept in mind that in France or Bulgaria, in the city or countryside, in a conservative or progressive country, some things do not change: women are hypergamous, the love market is unequal, and there is no cheat code that allows a mediocre man to conquer an exceptional woman for life.

To Read : Demystifying Relationships: Deconstructing Myths for Better Understanding Between Men and Women

In the end, wanting an Eastern woman because she matches your deep preferences is an excellent option. However, seeing Eastern Europe as a sort of paradise populated by submissive women fascinated by any Western man just because he earns 20% more than the French minimum wage is an immature fantasy. A passport is not a magic filter to find love.