A Filipina in her early twenties, clad in a tight-fitting pair of jeans, a body-hugging shirt walks on a busy street in the Philippines. She attracts attention not only because of her looks but because she is holding hands with a foreigner who is old enough to be her grandfather.

Two blocks away, a woman in her late forties is hanging on to the arm of a 65-year old foreigner. Both women will be marrying their boyfriends soon and each had her own reasons. Every year more Filipina ladies are leaving the country each year to marry a foreigner. Here are some of the common reasons for these marriages:

The search for greener pastures.

It is undeniable that a big percentage of the Filipina girls who marry foreigners look at their husbands as a “visa” for them to go find better opportunities abroad. Filipina ladies have a mission to support their family as soon as they are able to, like help send younger siblings to school or take over the responsibility as the head of the family.

Travel and adventure

A foreigner husband is a ticket to exciting worlds beyond the desolate place she may have grown up in. She looks at him as the realization of her childhood dreams of traveling to far places.

Status elevation

As ironic as it seems, majority of the Filipino women prefers American love stories over Philippine films and they get all dreamy eyed and instantly fall in love when they see a caucasian man.

Age factor

While a woman in her late thirties is considered in the prime of life in other countries, it is not the case for a Filipina because when she is past 30 and is still unmarried, eyebrows will start to rise and her chances of getting married starts to get slim and meeting a foreigner for a prospective husband online is one of her few choices. Usually, a Filipina marries in her late teens or early 20s and should already have a child in college by the time she is 40 years old.

Failed marriages

Failure in her marriage could also push Filipina ladies to look to foreigners for a second chance. Some of these Filipina ladies are unwed mothers, while others are victims of abusive husbands, forced to do menial jobs for a meager pay just to support her children.

Average looks

An average looking Filipina (meaning not the beauty queen material) may feel she does not have to go to lengths and pay huge amounts to augment her physical features to attract a foreign husband-to-be.

True Love

You may find it hard to believe this but despite the perception that the Filipina is taking a risk marrying a person with a different set of values with a different cultural background, love could be the reason why she will marry a foreigner.