SMS Divorce

RFE-RL reports on how labor migration affects Tajikistan's divorce rate:

"With jobs at home in dismally short supply, a significant percentage of Tajikistan's male population depends on seasonal work abroad to earn money that can be sent home in the form of remittances. But as this migrant culture takes root, long-distant marriages are increasingly ending in 'SMS divorce,' contributing to a spike in the country's divorce rate and leaving countless Tajik women without recourse...

"It is estimated that nearly a million Tajiks -- accounting for one out of every seven citizens and consisting mostly of men aged 18 to 60 -- depend on seasonal jobs in Russia or elsewhere abroad to make a living. The migratory nature of the work leads to prolonged periods away from home, a scenario that women's rights activists say negatively affects the institution of marriage in Tajikistan."

I suspect that the men in migrant communities often take up with women in the country where they work, leaving women in the labor sending country effectively out of luck in traditional societies.