The Danish Faroe Islands, located between Norway and Iceland, has
experienced a falling birth rate that threatens the archipelago’s future
population. Men outnumber women by 2000 and the total population of the
Faroes is just 48,500. As reported by the Danish Broadcasting
Corporation, many Faroese women leave the islands to study in large
cities like Oslo, Copenhagen or London and half never return. Hermann
Oskarsson, the islands’ former chief economic advisor, warned that by
2023, the population could fall to 37,000. He told Politiken newspaper,
“It is a question of survival. The young women that should be here to
give birth to children are gone.”
Some Faroese men feel they have the solution to the emigration of
Faroese women and have started ‘importing wives’ from the Philippines
and Thailand. Filipinos and Thais are the largest groups of foreigners
on the Faroes numbering 200. Mostly women, that number has doubled since
2006. It is unclear if the rise in immigration of people from the
Philippines and Thailand is due to the ‘bride imports’ or to employment
or other factors.
Bjarni Ziska Dahl, a teacher and shepherd, was single for years but
in 2010 married his wife, Cherelle, a Filipino woman. About her husband
Cherelle said, “He’s a good man. Yeah. He’s just simple.” Bjarni’s
brother Heini, and some of their friends also tied the knot with
Filipinas. Despite their countries being so far apart, Cherelle and
Bjarni said that Filipinos and Faroese have common cultural values with
their close family ties and living everyday life simply.
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