How International Dating Became Legitimized

There’s a growing trend among men and women all over the world and it’s one that involves the heart because it’s a trend that has to do with love. It’s the trend of international dating. Mixed citizenship marriages are becoming more and more commonplace and there are a lot of good and valid reasons for that.

First of all, there’s the proliferation of online dating. Anyone can sign up on those dating sites for singles and then find a person that they may be interested in being with. All someone needs is an internet connection. Internet access has become more common as smartphones become accessible to all.

There are so many platforms for dating on the internet. There are websites that seek to match people with other people.

There are apps that present their users with a bevy of options for them to find someone they might have a potential romantic interest in. The fact is, between matchmaking websites and dating apps, a person has options when trying to find love.

Sometimes, those avenues can lead a man to a woman who is in not just in a different neighborhood, city, or state, but a different country altogether. Different time zones can add extra difficulties in the relationship.

International Couples in Pop Culture

Of course, dating internationally is not some newfangled phenomenon that came about with the internet. History is full of people who dated outside their borders. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst.

Take for example Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. She was born in Egypt, he was from Rome. Yet they got together. Borders did not stop them from getting married and they managed to do so without the advantage of the free online dating bringing them together.

Not that it stopped with those two. History is littered with stories of nobility marrying their children off to foreign aristocrats. So international dating isn’t all that new. But it is new to a lot of people who weren’t born with the privilege of a possibly literally silver spoon in their mouth.

In both World Wars, it was not unheard of for American soldiers to meet some European lass and fall for them. Many brought them home to the United States and built a life together.

American women also often married British nobility. American actress Meghan Markle went ahead and landed herself an actual prince in Great Britain’s Prince Harry and got him to put a ring on it and walked down in the aisle in what many described as an actual fairy tale wedding come to life.

United States President Donald Trump also married his wife Melania, who was not originally from the United States.

Not all international marriages involve government figures. Lebanese-born British barrister and human rights specialist Amal Alamuddin convinced Hollywood heartthrob and hitherto perennial bachelor George Clooney and subsequently became Amal Clooney.

Now, while the above cases did happen, they were more the exception than the rule. And while dating a person from a different country is still more the exception than the rule, it’s slowly changing for a wide variety of reasons.

International Dating Websites

Look, the impact of the internet not just on dating but also on life in general cannot be understated.

One way that the internet has changed daily life is when it comes to ordering takeout food. Instead of dialing a number and placing orders off of a takeout menu, a person can select the items they want off of their smartphone and someone will deliver it to them, all without having to directly communicate with another human being.

It’s simply more convenient for a lot of people to order their food that way. And the same principle can be applied when it comes to dating. Instead of going to a bar or a nightclub, a man can log in to his account on a website or tap an icon on the screen of his phone and he’s suddenly putting himself out there and he doesn’t even have to leave his house.

An Increase in International Travel

Back in the old days, people used to dress up to go flying. A man would show up in a suit and a woman would show up in a smart dress and they’d board a plane. This is because flying wasn’t as accessible as it is today.

But airlines have grown considerably, which means that more and more people are flying. There’s all kinds of airlines, from budget airlines that offer packages at various price points to curated services that rent out private jets like limousines on prom night.

Given the massive amount of options that a person has to travel, it’s no surprise that more and more people are travelling beyond their own borders, which means that they meet people in new countries and sometimes, a man goes to a foreign country and meets a woman and it’s like lightning strikes and he’s in love.

The increase in travel between countries has also led to more immigration. Sometimes, a guy goes to study abroad and he meets a local girl and then his life suddenly seems less lifelike when she’s not in it.

The reverse can also happen. A guy can just be minding his own business, going about his day, and suddenly, he meets a woman and it turns out that she’s a tourist but while her stay in his country is temporary, her stay in his heart is a little more permanent.

Social Media Soul Mates

There’s also the rise of social media to consider. While they’re not dating apps, a person can still use them to start their own journey of international dating.

This is because most social media sites don’t really give a hoot about a person’s location outside of targeted ads, which means that a man in America can follow and then communicate with a woman in a totally different nation and vice-versa and they can communicate pretty regularly and sometimes, this communication can become romantic in nature and they can start dating.

And that’s kind of the whole point of social media. Social media sites want to connect people with one another and they like being able to do so without the hassle of international borders getting in the way. Social media sites are totally free dating sites provided they’re used properly.

Changing Cultural Values

One reason that people don’t date the way they used to is that values have changed. Sometimes, a person wants something more traditional, they want the same kind of relationship that their parents and grandparents before them had. The thing is that a lot of the people that are in their area may have differing views as to what they want out of a relationship.

Maybe the woman that a man is interested in isn’t interested in the life he wants to build and that’s not a good thing in dating because having goals that are not in sync with one another can cause conflict.

When something like that happens, a guy can then turn his attention toward foreign ladies, some of whom may share his vision for an ideal relationship and an ideal life.

A Lack of Local Options

Sometimes, a man just strikes out where he is. Sure, they try and they try and they read dating advice blogs and they can prepare themselves as best as they can.

But they still do not find the love that they want. No matter how hard they try and how well they prepare, they still get rejected over and over again. Which is why many of them decide that maybe their best chances at finding love means expanding their geographic boundaries beyond what they normally know. So they go online and find people outside their country.

A Spark with Someone

Love is both exciting and entirely unpredictable. There are so many songs about that it can sometimes seem like humanity has managed to get some kind of grip on it. It turns out people have learned very little about the way love works.

Sure, people can quantify it to some extent. Attraction can be predicted. Falling in love and eating some really good chocolate affect the brain the same way.

But two people who should be a great match on paper often end up kind of resenting each other after like a minute of knowing one another to the point that the mere existence of the other is offensive to them, which is why sometimes two people connect one way or another and then it’s like time stops and there’s nothing else but the other person and they want this person more than anything they’ve ever wanted in their life.

Love is unpredictable to the highest of degrees and it does not care about whether or not you and the person you love come from different countries. It doesn’t care about things like distance. It exists and everyone has no choice but to live with it.

There’s so many reasons that men and women from all over the world decide that maybe the romantic fulfillment that they want in their lives can be best found with someone in another country.

The methods by which people actually go out and find that romantic fulfillment are often pretty diverse.

Using an International Dating Service

One of the most common ways for people to find someone from a different country is by going through a dedicated service that is explicitly about setting people up when there’s a significant bit of geographic distance in the way.

Services such as these will often do everything in their power to not only make sure a man and woman meet in real life, but also so they can find a way to be together physically in the sense that they both live in the same country, preferably in the same home.

A pair that they set up living together, preferably in marriage, is pretty much the ideal scenario of such dating services.

Embracing Solo Travel

Sometimes, the dating services you use decide that maybe simply being a platform for people to meet one another is not enough. Sometimes, they decide that maybe they need to step their game up so they can really facilitate international dating.

So they’ll create opportunities for their users to get together. They do this by setting up tours. This allows some of their male users to fly out to a new country wherein some of their female users will be waiting for them so they can all mingle and get together.

These services also offer something a little bit extra. The big social events where everyone is mingling together are not all these companies do in order to get their users to end up together. They also facilitate one on one dates between their users so that two people who hit it off at a big social event can get to know each other a little better.

Communicating Through International Dating Sites

Now, the services that put people together are invested in making sure those people stay together as well. One way that they do that is by circumventing one of the most daunting problems when it comes to dating someone internationally: the language barrier.

Barring some insane linguistic abilities, the language barrier is going to be a factor when it comes to dating someone internationally. After all, relationships are built on communication, and communication is going to be hard if two people don’t understand each other. The fact is that even when people do speak the same language, they can sometimes have a hard time understanding each other.

Throwing in the added complication of not being able to speak the same language is only going to make things that much harder.

Matchmaking services that get two people together also want them to stay together, so they offer translation services to help potential pairings better communicate with one another.

Communication powers any successful relationship. Many dating services are of the opinion that language shouldn’t get in the way of being able to communicate.

The trouble with love is that it’s hard to find, hard to shake, and even harder to keep. We can seek to find love or it can sneak up on you when you don’t want it. But love will still be there and distance is hardly going to stop it.

While it is true the physical reality of massive distances can hinder love, it doesn’t always stop it. Sure, a long-distance relationship can fizzle out and the people therein can go ahead and find someone else a little closer to home.

But there are times when love does indeed get to win. Sometimes, dating someone from another country works out for the best for everyone involved. A man and a woman get to be in a happy relationship and their friends and family get to see two people that they care about be happy.

The thing about happiness in a relationship is that it can be pretty hard to find sometimes. People can love each other but never really connect and that’s kind of the point of a relationship. But happiness is also something that’s entirely possible to achieve and it doesn’t matter where your partner comes from as long as the bond is there.

Trying your hand at international dating is not some instant solution to all your romantic woes. Just because a woman is from a different country doesn’t mean she’s going to instantly swoon. But it’s not an automatic fail either.

It’s entirely possible that you’ll make a real, lasting connection with someone and it’ll lead to a lifetime of happiness. The world has always been full of possibility, it’s just that those possibilities are a lot more open to a lot more people.