Does the influence of Western society affect people in cultures that traditionally perform arranged marriages?

Answer 1

Yes, it certainly does. For instance East Indian Culture is the father picking the groom to wed his daughter, but if the children are brought over or born in a Western country it appears the parents hang onto the old ways of their culture while the children are Westernized and the fight is on. I live in British Columbia, Canada and not far from where I live a young East Indian girl (in her early 20s) was being forced by her parents to marry a man in his 70s because this old man was going to provide the family with a great deal of money. The daughter told her parents that she didn't want to marry him (she was Westernized), but, her father who was extremely stern said she had no say in the matter. Of course she tried to fight back and they sent her back to India to relatives in hopes once she saw her own culture in action she would stop misbehaving (as they considered it.) While there she met a young cart-boy and they fell in love. When she returned from India her father slapped her around and disowned her and told her she was marrying this older man and that was the end of it. Some how this young woman went back to India and started up her relationship with the young man she'd fallen in love with. It enraged her parents so much that the MOTHER sent an uncle over to India to kill the young man. The two lovers were on a small motor bike going along a deserted road and the uncle was in a car (with other men) following them and purposely hit the motor bike sending the two young people flying through the air. The young man was badly injured, but the young woman was thrown clear into soft sand. Thinking the young man was dead they ignored him, but the uncle went over to the young woman and told her she had to come home and be married as their culture dictated. At that moment he called her mother on his cell phone (the mother obviously must have been somewhere in India with her relatives, but smart enough to stay clear of any wrong-doing) and he said that her daughter refused to marry the old man. The words that came out of the mother even shocked the uncle "Kill her!" With that he slit the young girl's throat. Unfortunately, the police could do nothing in Canada regarding the mother, but did charge the uncle and he had to be punished in India (and was.) A similar culture to the above is some Asian cultures. The above is just an example of what can happen when a culture is introduced to Westernized ways. Some cultures aren't much different than Western Culture and Immigrants simply want peace and a better way of life so they meld into the Western ways well and still manage to hold on to some old traditions in their culture. Then there are religious beliefs, such as Jewish people marrying another Jewish person and not weakening the bloodlines. On and on it goes.