ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how public and political debates have been shaped by national anxiety about female migrants. The chapter explains how the intermarriage issue has been annexed to the 'mail-order brides' one, in eluding the many forms of dating strategies women mobilize. It outlines the main findings of a qualitative research study conducted in the Philippines beginning in 2007 about women engaged/married to foreigners. In the Philippines, the phrase is commonly used to refer to marriages facilitated by international introduction agencies. Many couples or binational families are there to regularize their situation vis-à-vis the rules of stay in the Philippines. Some Philippine cultural traits render inadequate interview techniques traditionally used in Western countries. In the 1970s, Philippine labour export policy raised public debates on gender relations. The chapter deals with debates dividing the international feminist movement and fractures that occur between First and Third World feminists.
