While its origins are unclear, the term “Passport Bro” seems to have been coined in 2011, when filmmaker Al Greeze released his documentary “Frustrated.”
The film follows the growing trend of African American men leaving the United States to pursue women in foreign countries, namely Brazil, according to its summary.
The term became mainstream in 2019 and has now expanded to include men of all races.
According to its official website, self-identified Passport Bros are men who have “decided to pursue relationships with foreign women” as a lifestyle choice. These men believe traditional, family-oriented values are more common among foreign women, in comparison to what they perceive as a “toxic” and “hostile” Western feminist philosophy.
Filled with exaggerations and victimhood, the Passport Bros website is characterized by underlying rage. It declares, “the claims that the critics are making are BOLD-FACED LIES. ”
Ironically, the tone of the Passport Bros come across as deeply emotional — contradicting its hyper masculine ideals that often dismiss public displays of emotion.
Disregarding the way the Passport Bros’ manifesto reads like a rant from a cartoon villain, it is appalling how these men support their actions with surface-level facts that have no further elaboration. For example, its home page cites an accurate statistic about how 70% of divorces are initiated by women, insinuating women marry men purely for alimony.
But in reality, women often feel less satisfied in marriages due to unmet emotional needs and unequal divisions of household responsibilities, according to Divorce.org. Physical and emotional violence are also major causes of divorce — with the victims being disproportionately women.
Notably, the website focuses on “relationships” — rather than marriage — with the foreign women Passport Bros idealize, which reads more like sex tourism. This open pursuit of casual relationships contradicts with the traditional family-oriented values these men supposedly seek.
Surely, it is a coincidence that Passport Bros flock to locations with significantly lower educational and career opportunities than Western countries.
Surely, it is also just a coincidence that many of these countries have lower ages of consent — such as the Philippines, where the age of consent was just changed from twelve to sixteen in 2022.
Considering that one of the key grievances in the Passport Bros’ manifesto revolves around the supposed “weaponization” of law enforcement by Western women making false allegations, I highly doubt that the pattern of choosing such destinations is incidental.
Passport Bros are generally drawn to pursuing women in countries where the cost of living is lower, which allows them to leverage their financial position. This advantage creates imbalance in any relationship — and they know it.
The allure of exoticism reinforces harmful stereotypes that objectify women and girls, framing them as objects of hyper-femininity that can be purchased. Industries — and even governments — knowingly exploit these perceptions to rebrand and generate profit.
The Filipino government has profited off the sexualization of Filipinas to enable the flow of foreign currency into the national economy, according to the University of British Columbia. The mail-order bride industry is just one example of how this commodification is institutionalized.
Filipinas use the awareness of their exoticism as a survival mechanism, at the risk of their own lives, to bypass restrictive immigration policies as well as a fading local economy. This dynamic transforms personal objectification into systemic exploitation.
It is inappropriate to generalize all relationships between women from developing countries and Western men. However, the racial, socioeconomic and age imbalances at play cannot go ignored.
Passport Bros often lack awareness of the damage they cause, which can echo neocolonialism — the indirect control of developing countries by colonial nations.
Just so we’re clear: commodification and exploitation are not equivalent to cultural appreciation and mutual respect.
