6th World Congress on Family Law and Human Rights
The ‘Quiet Migration’
Is international adoption a successful
intervention in the lives of vulnerable
children worldwide?
Dr Gabriela Misca
PhD CPsychol
Overview


Background on current inter-country
adoption (ICA) practice
International legal benchmarks
• UNCRC
• 1993 Hague Convention on Inter-country
adoption


Studies of inter-country adoptions
outcomes
The future of inter-country adoptions?
Reflections on dilemmas
Inter-country adoption: a global
phenomenon?


‘Opening’ of ICA from Korea in 1953
‘Quiet migration’ (Weil, 1984)
• Significant movement of children across borders from
poor countries
• “Waves” of ICA in conjunction with major social and
political changes – i.e.: Romania, Russia, China

Estimates:
• At its peak in 2004: 45,000 children worldwide were
involved in ICA in one year (Selman, 2009)
• During 2000-2010: 410,000 children (Selman, 2012)

Extent of inter-country adoptions worldwide is
difficult to estimate accurately
• Due to lack of a central, unified system of recording
(Selman, 2002)
Shifts in ICA nature

Humanitarian motivation
• Korean War

Demand from childless couple from
developed countries
• ‘Celebrity’ inter-country adoptions
ICA Debates

Ethical concerns
• Removing children from birth country,
culture



“Ultimate form of imperialism”
Children’s rights?
Links between sending country’s use
of domestic adoption?
• International pressure on sending
countries practices and legislation
International legal benchmarks:
The UNCRC




Article 3
• the best interest of the child shall be of primary
consideration
Article 8
• the right of the child to preserve his or her identity,
including nationality, name and family relations
Article 9
• a child shall not be separated from his or her parents
against their will unless necessary for the best interests of
the child
Article 21
• Adoption should only be carried out in the best interest of
the child;
• Inter-country adoption may be considered as an
alternative means of child’s care
 enjoys safeguards and standards equivalent to those
existing in the case of national adoption
 does not result in improper financial gain for those
involved in it
International legal benchmarks:

1993 Hague Convention on Inter-country
adoption
• reinforces the UNCRC (Article 21)
• protects children and their families against the
risks of illegal, irregular, premature or illprepared adoptions abroad
• ensures that inter-country adoptions are made
in the best interests of the child and with
respect for his or her fundamental rights, and
to prevent the abduction, the sale of, or traffic
in children
Concerns

The Matching principle
• matching child’s needs to adoptive families

Legitimacy of adopting internationally
children with living parents/relatives
• Last resort?



Use of internet ‘advertising’ of children
(Chou et al., 2007)
The ‘politics’ of inter-country adoptions
Is international adoption a successful
intervention in the lives of vulnerable
children worldwide?
Studies of inter-country adoptions




Focus on outcomes for inter-country
adopted children
Understanding their development
Guiding policy and practice
Substantial research 1980s-1990s in
countries that were major recipients of
internationally adopted children
• reviews by Thoburn and Charles (1992); Tizard
(1991)
Early studies of children’s
outcomes in ICA

Primarily optimistic messages about
outcomes:
• 75–80% of inter-country-adopted
children and adolescents function well.
• The rapid recovery of children in their
first year of adoption is considered
remarkable.
• Satisfaction with adoption by adoptive
parents and adopted children is rated
high or very high by over 80% of
adoptive families.
It’s complicated…

Some problems involved:
• on arrival, the children may have to
unlearn the ‘survival techniques’ they
had used in their home environments
(such as lying and stealing)
• to reconsider their perceptions of adults
as people who mainly obstructed and
punished them in their past
It’s not always a happily ever after
story…
April 2010
Risk factors involved in ICA
outcomes

Age at adoption
• emotional and behavioural difficulties seem more likely
to occur when children are adopted at a relatively late
age.

Children’s early experiences before adoption
• adverse conditions such as poverty, malnutrition,
institutionalisation, neglect and abuse

Children’s medical and social history prior to
birth
• Age and the mother’s poor nutrition
• abuse of alcohol or drug-taking during pregnancy
• a child’s genetic background and lack of neonatal
screening in some birth countries


Interaction of risk factors
The lack of information on the above
Some barriers to understanding
ICA outcomes
Research on adoption outcomes has
children’s experiences prior to adoption
as one of its black holes [and] this is
especially true in the case of
international adoptions. (Palacios, 2009,
p.74)
Key factors in ICA success

Adoptive parents
• Commitment
• Quality of parenting and environment

High levels of support required in their
adoptive countries
• health, mental health and educational supports

Addressing our knowledge gaps
• evidence-based practice on what interventions
are best suited to the needs of these children
Issues of cultural and self-identity
in ICA

Cultural and self-identity
• relevant as the children enter their adolescent
years (Verhulst, 2000)


inter-country adoptees regard themselves as having
the same national identity as those born in the
country where they live
many also show a strong interest in their
backgrounds (Irhammar and Cederblad, 2000)
• some want to distance themselves from
immigrants of a similar ethnic background
(Saetersdal and Dalen, 2000)

Particularly true where there is ethic stereotyping and
discrimination – i.e.: Romanian children adopted in
Ireland (Greene et al., 2007)
Cultural and self-identity in ICA revisited


Successful adjustment: children whose parents
are open about the ethnic issues
A meta-analytical review across 88 studies
• no difference in self-esteem between adoptees and nonadoptees, and this held true for international, domestic
and trans-racial adoptees (Juffer and van IJzendoorn,
2007)


Suggestion that ethnic and cultural identity
issues are not as salient as first thought for
these young people’s adjustment
For example: in the UK the primacy of ethnic
matching in domestic adoptions has been
removed in 2011
• primary importance now to be given to finding a
placement that will meet the child’s needs and will not
delay the possibility of adoption
The future of ICA?

Opportunities for children:
• Positive development following difficult
experiences in birth countries

Less stigma attached to ICA?
• Globalisation and the declining
importance of national borders
• Increasingly ethnically and culturally
diverse societies and families