Maria Satz

Paper Marriage Market Maria Satz

The author describes her online dating experience and being lured from Lithuania to Cyprus to marry what she believed was the love of her life. As an educated European woman who left her whole life, career and family behind, she soon discovers how difficult it is to live with an Asian, Afghani man in a foreign country, and that what is going on there has nothing to do with love, but is a pure business and a paper marriage market. The interracial relationships (Asian men - Afghani, Pakistani, Bengali or Indian marry European women - from Romania, Bulgaria Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, etc.) are dominated by money, and it is a game of either paying or being paid. Illegal boys are pictured to do almost anything to get the precious yellow slip (legal papers granting residency) and leave Cyprus for the Promised European Land, be it Germany, the UK or Scandinavian countries. The phenomena of catfishing, scamming, illegal immigration, lying, betrayal, domestic violence, prostitution and physicality mingle with search for acceptance, life partner and realizing a dream to have a family and a better life. The author alternately describes the stages of the main character's (Renata's) abusive relationship in Cyprus and her visit to Afghanistan along with the lives of different more or less 'paper' couples, their daily struggles to deal with cultural and religious differences as well as immigration. The content of the book is often raw and so is the language (written by a non-native English speaker), which reflects the violence and pathological background of many characters that immigrated to Europe leaving the poverty and degeneration behind (and getting involved here in paper marriage gangs).