What is Bezness - the origins
Origins of Bezness - economic situation - Bezness countries
Bezness Countries
Bezness is, today, predominantely happening in economically disadvantaged countries.The typical Bezness countries are, and have been for some years,
- Egypt
- Morocco
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Subsahara (black) Africa
Generally, in each country with low economic development, a "bezness culture" can evolve.
The origins of Bezness
The reason why Bezness has developed in such countries has been foremost the bad economic state. High unemployment, low wages, mostly hard manual labour and big families on one hand, and on the other hand tourists who lightheartedly give tips that surpass the weekly wage of a worker and generally spend more than a year's wage for an holiday are incubation grounds for Bezness.In addition, in todays world, television brings the western alleged glance and shine into the smallest hut at the end of the world. In web forums and social network communities, the richest and poorest people are no more than a fingertip away from each other.
The first men, who sucessfully married a "rich" woman from abroad, became residents of western countries and could send large amounts of money (compared to their homeland average income) back to the family. They even could build houses and shops in their homeland, and thus they became idols for others at home.
And they could achieve all this with little education, even with, compared to their homeland, little work and effort.
More tried out this method and succeeded and so even more became interested in the "easy way" to become rich, rather than to work off their bones hard and long to just survive.
In fact, it is mostly, but by far not exclusively, the less educated and/or socially lower standing men, who favoured the "fake relationship", aka Bezness, method. The others often prefer to become rich or at least gain a modest life by their own means, getting a good education and searching for a good job.
And if they wanted to leave their country, they usually will achieve this by own means, rather than by the help of "rich" westerners.
Whether or not the image of the man, "who made it in the west" is correct or not, is of less relevance here.
He does send money to the family back home and he does visit with a suitcase full of gifts, that is the important thing that anyone can see, that is what anyone will perceive as the important fact.
Whether he gained all this by running up credit lines, by conducting illegal activities or by living only very modestly abroad to be able to afford it, doesn't matter and won't or can't be investigated by his family and friends.
In fact, since many people, at least the immediate family, is gaining from this "wealth", it makes it even more desirable to put at least one family member into such a position.
And so the whole family will do their best to make this possible, not only by collecting money to get him married abroad, but mainly by assuring the future spouse that his family loves her truely and is standing behind the marriage.
It is "All for one" rather than "Everyone for himself" even in countries whose societies have not embedded this into their main values.
There is often the argument that this all happens only because a man has no chance to survive in his country, because there are no jobs, or because the wage is so low, so that he is so-to-say "forced" to look for and use other means.
However, tens and hundreds of thousands do survive in the homeland, so the chances are there, but they often seem less glamorous and will involve hard times of education and work.
So it is quite understandeable that there are those who want to take the short cut, however, that is not because they have to, but because they want to.
There is also a major difference here between men and women - women marrying an foreigner (= westerner) often come from all parts of a society, from down below to good standing, some even with solid university degrees (namely from Eastern Europe).
Most of the foreign women are used and willing to fill the traditional role of a woman who does (house)work and children raising, however, they usually expect an husband to care for them (and, in some societies, also for their family back home) financially in exchange.
And although there is a good number of women who will seek a divorce after their main goal (of bezness) is reached, the percentage of women who stay in a marriage seems to be quite higher than in the opposite combination.
The reason for this is that the traditional western gender role (man: works, women: housewife) is matching the actual foreign society gender role, so the women can stay in their general role.
In the opposite combination, however, foreign men often do not have the language, education or job skills, to obtain, in the western society, the role of their home country as the family provider.
Plus - men are often educated and socialized to "rule" a family, and define their social standing by how well this works, while a woman is educated to "groom" a family and can thus obtain her social standing even in the west much quicker and easier than a man.
And this is also why Bezness between a foreign man and a western women is more problematic and prominent than between a foreign woman and a western man - it is easier for women to "leave" the Bezness track than it is for men.
Nonetheless, in both combinations, a lot of money can change hands, a lot of emotional and even physical damage can be inflicted.
But even then, the western man who has been left by a foreign wife is viewed and judged by the western society in a different way than a western woman who has been left by a foreign husband (even no matter whether Bezness was involved or not).