International adoption of South Korean children
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The International adoption of South Korean children is a recent historical process triggered initially by casualties of the Korean War after 1953. The initiative was taken by religious organizations in the United States, Australia, and many European nations, and eventually developed into various apparati that sustained adoption as a socially integrated sytem.
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Historical Context
International adoption of South Korean children started after the Korean War which lasted from 1950 to 1953. When the war was over, many children were left orphaned. In addition a large number of mixed race ‘G.I babies’ (offspring of U.S. and other western soldiers and Korean women) were filling up the country’s orphanages (Jang, 1998).
Touched by the fate of the orphans, Western religious groups as well as other associations started the process of placing children in homes in the USA and Europe (Jang, 1998). Adoption from South Korea began in 1955 when Harry Holt, a born again Christian from Eugene, Oregon, went to Korea and adopted eight war orphans (Rotschild, The Progressive, 1988). His work has been followed by the Holt International Children's Services. The first Korean babies sent to Europe went to Sweden via the Social Welfare Society in the mid 1960s. By the end of that decade, the Holt International Children's Services began sending Korean orphans to Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Germany (Hong, Korea Times, 1999).
For the next decade, most of the children adopted from Korea were fathered by American soldiers who fought in the Korean war. But Amerasians presently account for fewer than 1 per cent of adoptees. Today, Korea is exporting its own. Foreign adoptions serve many purposes for the government (Rotschild, The Progressive, 1988).
Social Context
Korean traditional society places significant weight on paternal family ties, bloodlines, and purenes of ‘race’. Children of mixed race or those without fathers are not easily accepted in Korean society (Jang, 1998). Many families would go through excessive and expensive procedures such as surrogacy or in vitro fertilization to ensure that their offsprings are at least related than to accept a child of a complete stranger into their family. Indeed, it was the case until recently that Korean citizenship was directly tied to family bloodline. Children not a part of a Korean family (i.e., orphans) were not legal citizens of Korea. Another reason is the stigma of adoption. Ninety-five percent of families who do adopt choose babies less than a month old that they can pass them off as their natural born offspring, overlooking older adoptable children (Yun, Korea Times, 1997).
In addition, most Western countries started to face a shortage of healthy, domestic babies available for adoption in this period, as a result of social welfare programs, legalized abortions and use of contraception. So many Western couples were opening themselves up towards the idea of adopting children from outside their own country.
This was the start of a popular trend which is still present today, as the demand for foreign babies from infertile, upper- and middle class, couples in the West is rising (Jang, 1998). The procedure of international adoption is today a growing and often favoured method for couples to build their families and new countries are constantly opening up for international adoption, both as sending and receiving countries.
Economic Impact
Korean adoptees bring in needed hard currency for Korea — roughly $15 to $20 million a year. They relieve the government of the costs of caring for the children, which could be a drain on the budget. And they help with population control, an obsession of the Korean government. Also, they solve a difficult social problem: What to do with orphans and abandoned children? In 1986, South Korea had 18,700 orphaned or abandoned children. Almost half were sent abroad for adoption, 70 per cent of these to the United States, the rest to Canada, Australia, and eight European nations (Rotschild, The Progressive, 1988).
Some skeptics claim that Korean adoption agencies have established a system to guarantee a steady supply of healthy children. Supporters of this system claim that adoption agencies are only caring for infants who would otherwise go homeless or be institutionalized. While their motives can not be easily determined, their methods are efficient and well-established.
Korean adoption agencies support pregnant-women's homes; three of the four agencies run their own. One of the agencies has its own maternity hospital and does its own delivery. All four provide and subsidize child care. All pay foster mothers about $80 a month to care the infants, and the agencies provide the food and the clothing and other supplies free of charge. And they support orphanages, or operate them themselves.
When the time for departures arrives, the babies are flown to their foreign families, escorted by strangers who wait in line for their discount airfares (Rotschild, The Progressive, 1988). Payments are routine to maternity hospitals,midwives, obstetricians, officials at each of the four agencies acknowledged. The agencies will cover the costs of delivery and the medical care for any woman who gives up her baby for adoption. The agencies also use their influence with hospitals, and with the police, to acquire abandoned children (Rotschild, The Progressive, 1988).
Upbringing, Identity, and Nationalism
The International adoption of South Korean children has had a series of impacts on the culture and identity formation of the korean adoptees.
Statistics
- Domestic adoptees in Korea 1953-2001: 62 100 (Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2002)
- Overseas adoptees outside Korea 1953-2001: 148,394 (Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2002)
Breakdown by receiving country
Number of adopted Koreans by country, from 1953-2001:
| Country | Date range | Adopted Koreans |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 1953-57 | 1224 |
| " | 1958-2001 | 97,837 |
| France | 1968-2001 | 10,923 |
| Sweden | 1957-2001 | 8622 |
| Denmark | 1965-2001 | 8417 |
| Norway | 1956-2001 | 5806 |
| Netherlands | 1969-2001 | 4056 |
| Belgium | 1969-1995 | 3697 |
| Australia | 1969-2001 | 2837 |
| Germany | 1965-1996 | 2351 |
| Canada | 1967-2001 | 1543 |
| Switzerland | 1968-1997 | 1111 |
| Luxembourg | 1984-2001 | 418 |
| Italy | 1965-1981 | 382 |
| England | 1958-1981 | 72 |
| Other countries | 1956-1957 | 4 |
| " | 1960-1995 | 62 |
| Total | 1953-2001 | 149,362 |
Other countries 1960-84:
New Zealand: 559 (1964-1984)
Japan: 226 (1962-1982)
Okinawa: 94 (1970-1972)
Buland: 47 (1970)
Ireland 12 (1968-1975)
Poland: 7 (1970)
Spain: 5 (1968)
China: 4 (1967-1968)
Guam: 3 (1971-1972)
India: 3 (1960-64)
Paraguay: 2 (1969)
Finland: 1 (1984)
Hong Kong: 1 (1973)
Tunisia: 1 (1969)
Turkey: 1 (1969)
Total 1960-1984: 966
Other Nordic countries 1970–2000:
The Faroes: 36 (1973-2000)
Iceland: 22 (1970-1978)
Greenland: 7 (1971-1992)
Finland: 3 (1970s-1984)
Total 1970-2000: 68 (Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2002).
References
- Baker, Michael, "South Korea struggles to free itself from adoption stigma", Christian Science Monitor, 11/17/97, Vol. 89 Issue 246, p6
- Elliott, Louise, "Battling pride and prejudice", The Korea Herald, 2002.08.30, accessed 05/11/02
- Hong Sun-hee, "Subsidy for Families Adopting Disabled Orphans to Double", The Korea Times, 1999/01/17 [1] (http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2002/08/30/200208300006.asp)
- Jang, J, "Adult Korean Adoptees in Search of Roots", Korea Herald, 1998/12/10
- Kane, Saralee, "The movement of children for international adoption: An epidemiologic perspective", Social Science Journal, 1993, Vol. 30 Issue 4, p323.
- Meier, Dani Issac, "Loss and Reclaimed Lives: Cultural Identity and Place in Korean-American Intercountry Adoptees", Graduate thesis, University of Minnesota, March 1998
- Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2002
- Rothschild, Matthew, Babies for Sale "South Koreans make them, Americans buy them", The Progressive, U.S, January 1988 08/16/1999
- Shin, Hye-son, "IMF economic pinch increases number of abandoned children", The Korea Herald, 08/16/1999, [2] (http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/news/1999/08/__06/19990816_0639.htm)