Nearly 100,000 Vietnamese women marry foreigners every year on average and the number is on the rise.  Most of the marriages are made through brokerage, a conference was told.

>> Singapore fair features Vietnamese brides in Korea, Taiwan >> Foreign men are too civilized to marry: local actress The figure was released at a conference titled  “Vietnamese women in foreign countries” held in Hanoi on November 19 by the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs and the Vietnam Women’s Union. The event, which is the first of its kind organized in Vietnam, was attended by local delegates and nearly 200 young Vietnamese women who returned home from  foreign countries. Speaking at the event, Dang The Hung, deputy chairman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs, said most the marriage between Vietnamese women and foreigners are through match-makers. In the 2008-2010 period, nearly 300,000 Vietnamese women married foreigners, and the average number of women with foreign husbands per year has increased year after year, Hung said. “Many of those with foreign husbands have low educational levels, so they usually have to depend on their husband and some of them have been mistreated by their husbands or their husbands’ families.” “Besides, many marriages were conducted like “commercial exchanges” between foreigners and poor women who wanted to marry foreigners for financial purposes.”    There have also been many false marriages through which Vietnamese women were sent illegally to Taiwan or South Korea for illegal work. When speaking about the life of Vietnamese women in foreign countries, many delegates suggested that the Government should earmark a budget to support the operation of Vietnamese associations abroad. The State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs and the Vietnam Women’s Union conferred certificates of merit to 56 overseas Vietnamese women and Vietnamese womens associations that have demonstrated good performance in developing Vietnamese communities abroad and contributing to the homeland.