Marriage as way to in to the West

Getting married is absolutely not only about true love, but also money and getting into the West.

By Fami Bajrami

Macedonia

A fictive marriage is an illegal road to get out of Macedonia and toward EU countries for a better life. While the country is outside EU and the visa conditions are very strict, a fictive marriage with EU citizens seems to be an easier way to get into the West without much effort. This is one of the ways that Macedonian citizens followed just to get documents via marriages in the foreign countries.

The research also shows that Macedonians manage to get into the European countries illegally, mainly in Germany, but via other embassies where they work as labor. Meanwhile they are trying to find German woman, to make the documents and to pretend that “they fall in love with her”. After they decide to get married, they both come to Macedonia where they get married, after they got divorced from their first wife. Then they both get back in the European country and live together until the person legally fulfills the condition to get permission for settlement.

Another way which is used most of the time is to find a foreign citizen which will marry a Macedonian just to get the documents. For this favor she gets huge amounts of money from her “husband” from Macedonia and they do not live together. It is believed that in Germany there are lots of agencies which intermediate the process of finding the “joint-heart”. A significant number of the girls that apply in those agencies and look for a husband from other places are from the Eastern part of Germany and part of them are thought to do it for money.

This story was published in the Macedonian daily Fakti March 3, 4 and 5 2009.

Read the original articles here:

First article
Second article
Third article

Read the translation of the story in English here.