German matchmaking web sites: Online trafficking in women?

Abstract

This article reports on a study of Germany-based matchmaking agencies operating on the Internet, investigating how they are organized and how they advertise their commodities. Matchmaking has rapidly grown into a big digital business. This has engendered debate regarding the sexual behavior of its users, consequences of the resulting intermarriages, and on successful international policy for regulating the related migration. Being a new phenomenon, matchmaking on the Internet has largely remained unresearched until very recently. This analysis is a preliminary attempt to address online introduction services in one industrialized western country, Germany. It examines the size and extent of this kind of German business. One goal is to explore regional manifestations of the trade such as which countries are the counterparts in the other end of the trade? The article also highlights features typical for the advertising on this kind of web site, keeping in mind gender, ethnic, and race aspects. Finally, the issues are raised of whether matchmaking agencies are providing equal possibilities to different kinds of people in this kind of transaction, and whether these kinds of services have an impact on gender and ethnic equality.