The Faroe Island in Denmark is experiencing a shortage of women, so local men are increasingly seeking wives in particular from Thailand and the Philippines, the BBC reports.
The place with only 50,000 people are now declining in numbers and thankful that atleast there are around 300 women from Thailand and Philippines living in Faroes joining the clan.
Faroes have experienced population declined due to the young people leaving their place for education and settle abroad. As a result, according to Prime Minister Axel Johannesen, the Faroes have a "gender deficit" with approximately 2,000 fewer women than men.
Many of the Asian women met their husbands online, some through commercial dating websites. Others have made connections from friends through social media. Cool climate is a challenge for many people, although it never gets as cold as neighboring Iceland. A good summer's day would see the temperature reach at 16 deg. cel.
For the new arrivals, the culture shock can be dramatic.
But Antonette Egholm, originally from the Philippines, told Tim Ecott of BBC about her experience of moving to Faroe, highlighting that she hasn’t encountered any anti-immigrant sentiment.
“People here are friendly,” she explains, adding that, “I’ve never experienced any negative reactions to my being a foreigner. I lived in Metro Manila and there we worried about traffic and pollution and crime. Here we don’t need to worry about locking the house, and things like healthcare and education are free. At home we have to pay. And here you can just call spontaneously at someone’s house, it’s not formal. For me, it feels like the Philippines in that way.”
Likewise, her husband Regin believes increasing diversity is something that should be welcomed not feared.
“We actually need fresh blood here,” he adds, “I like seeing so many children now who have mixed parentage. Our gene pool is very restricted, and it’s got to be a good thing that we welcome outsiders who can have families.”
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