-The age gap between couples averages around seven years, the largest out of the various marriage demographics studied.

-The husband’s academic qualifications are usually low.

-The couple’s per capita family income is usually the lowest at $1,709 per month, some $900 lower than families with both spouses born here.

In addition, low family income was found to be highly correlated with family conflict.

Prof Yeung’s study served as a major corroboration to what social workers have already seen on the ground: namely that many of the Singaporean men marrying foreign women are usually older, less educated, and do not have high pay. Partly because of their husbands, these women are thus entrenched in difficult financial, legal, and sometime even marital challenges which they do not know how to seek help for.

However, not all is doom and gloom. Government measures such as waving the requirement for employers to apply for a letter of consent for Long Term Visit Pass (LTVP) holders to work here and lowering the cost of HDB flats for transnational couples have alleviated the circumstances of some of these women. The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) also partners with community service centres to organise workshops that help such couples in their marriage, or in the case of foreign wives, provide them with greater access to social networks and support.

Still, advocates for foreign spouses, such as AWARE’s Ms Shailey Hingorani, maintain that more should be done, especially in terms of providing citizenship and rights to migrant spouses.