Thailand is offering a free day-long course for women who plan to marry a foreigner and move overseas. It's part of a new initiative designed for those who feel they need assistance in knowing how to avoid being scammed and falling victim to human trafficking.
The course will cover a range of topics including "legal rights, how to seek help through relevant Thai authorities, as well as exploring issues of culture shock," Dusadee Ayuwat, an Associate Professor at Khon Kaen University, tells Reuters.
According to the Thai Social Development Ministry, human trafficking is a risk facing many Thai women, particularly those in the country's poorer regions, where marrying a foreigner can be seen as a ticket out of poverty.
The risk, the ministry claims, comes from both the popularity of interracial marriages in modern day Thailand and how poorer women can enter such relationships under false pretences.
A government survey from 2004 revealed over 15,000 women from northeastern Isan, one of Thailand's poorest regions, married foreigners and settled abroad. They sent 122 million Thai baht (or AUD $4.6 million) back to their families.
The course also encourages women to feel empowered, claims Ploysina Duangdararungrueng, a Thai woman who has been happily married to a German man for years. They are both settled in Thailand's Ayutthaya province. She took the course for research.
"Thai women, especially those from the northeast region, are soft-spoken and submissive," she tells Reuters. "[Through the course] they can learn to respect themselves and their culture."
Her husband, Ralf Wacker, echoed his wife's views but also added that he would like the government to offer a similar course covering aspects of culture shock in Thailand for western spouses.
"If the Western man does not understand the family dynamics, this can cause a lot of problems," he says.
The course, as it stands, is intended for women who move abroad, not those whose foreign partners choose to remain in Thailand.
The initiative is in its early days and has yet to see changes in the number of women duped into human trafficking. Nonetheless, the Ministry for Social Development is hopeful the course's effect will be a positive one.
