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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 apparatus that sustained adoption as a socially integrated sytem. Contents 1 Historical context 2 Social context 3 Economic impact 4 Upbringing, identity, and nationalism 5 Statistics 5.1 Breakdown by receiving country 6 References 7 External links 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 % of adoptees. Today, Korea is exporting its own. Foreign adoptions serve many purposes for the government (Rothschild, The Progressive, 1988). Social context Korean traditional society places significant weight on paternal family ties, bloodlines, and pureness 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 offspring 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 so 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. Many Western couples became open to the idea of adopting children from abroad. 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- 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 % of these to the United States, the rest to Canada, Australia, and eight European nations (Rotschild, The Progressive, 1988). At the time of writing (1988) the amount of $15-20m was significant compared to the spending on social welfare. 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 (Rothschild, 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 adoption abroad of Korean children has been criticized both in and out of Korea. A number of adoptees grow up feeling out of place or alienated from the Western society they are placed in. Many Koreans feel it is an insult to national pride that their children are exported. 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 1953-2001 99,061 France 1968-2001 10,923 Sweden 1957-2001 8,622 Denmark 1965-2001 8,417 Norway 1956-2001 5,806 Netherlands 1969-2001 4,056 Belgium 1969-1995 3,697 Australia 1969-2001 2,837 Germany 1965-1996 2,351 Canada 1967-2001 1,543 Switzerland 1968-1997 1,111 New Zealand 1960-1984 559 Luxembourg 1984-2001 418 Italy 1965-1981 382 Japan 1962-1982 226 Okinawa 1970-1972 94 England 1958-1981 72 Buland 1970 47 The Faroes 1973-200 36 Iceland 1970-1978 22 Ireland 1968-1975 12 Greenland 1971-1992 7 Poland 1970 7 Spain 1968 5 China 1967-1968 4 Finland 1970-1984 4 Guam 1971-1972 3 India 1960-1964 3 Paraguay 1969 2 Hong Kong 1973 1 Tunisia 1969 1 Turkey 1969 1 Other countries 1956-2001 66 Total 1953-2001 150,349 (Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2002). References Baker, Michael, "South Korea struggles to free itself from adoption stigma", Christian Science Monitor, 17 November 1997, Vol. 89 Issue 246, p6 Elliott, Louise, "Battling pride and prejudice", The Korea Herald, 30 August 2002, accessed 11 May 2002 Hong Sun-hee, "Subsidy for Families Adopting Disabled Orphans to Double", The Korea Times, 17 January 1999 [1] Jang, J, "Adult Korean Adoptees in Search of Roots", Korea Herald, 10 December 1998 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 16 August 1999 Shin, Hye-son, "IMF economic pinch increases number of abandoned children", The Korea Herald, 16 August 1999, [2] External links Asian-Nation: Adopted Asian Americans by C.N. Le, Ph.D. Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Family Network Transracial Abductees "An Adoptee's Perspective in Korean Adoption", Stephen C. Morrison. The Gathering of the First Generation of Adult Korean Adoptees: Adoptees' Perceptions of International Adoption, The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, June 2000. "Adoptees: Identity can be a long journey ", The Seattle Times, February 2, 2005. "A Korean Adoptee's Search for Her Identity", ModelMinority.com, November 29, 2003. "Korean Adoptees Speak Up in Forum", The Korea times, August 19, 2005. "Homeland Divide", Hyphen Magazine, Summer 2005 issue. "New Immigration Strategy: Koreans Send Children to America for Adoption ", New America Media, January 25, 2006. AICAN - Australian InterCountry Adoption Network Search Term: "International_adoption_of_South_Korean_children" Categories: South Korean society | Foreign relations of South Korea | Adoption | Korean migration

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