Harlow's Monkey

They're talking about Me

I am involved in a work group that is attempting to bring an adoption certification program to our state. This certificate program would be a year-long curriculum for professionals working in the field of adoption, such as adoption social workers in counties and private agencies (both for the children and the adoptive parents) and for therapists and mental health professionals who work with adopted children or other members of the triad. The University will be housing this program so MSW students could get credit or professionals in the field can earn CEU's (Continuing Education Units, necessary for licensure).

There is definitely a need for this. Among the three core classes that a participant would take is one focused on the history and practice of adoption; one on the specifics of mental health issues around adoption; and finally a whole course on "diverse family systems" that would definitely include transracial, international, GLBT and other "diverse" issues around adoption. Plus, electives that would dig deeper into some of the more needed issues.

Of the core work group, I am the only person there who is an adult who was adopted. And, I am the only non-white person as well. And, it goes without saying that I am the only person who was internationally and transracially adopted (of course there are a few adoptive parents in this group).

This is not to say that this is not a good work group, or that they aren't attuned to the "issues" of adoption. They are. I'm pretty quiet in this group. As I tend to be when I first get to know people. I've only been part of this work group for a month-and-a-half; a latecomer. Most of the hard tasks have already been completed. We are now ready to launch this proposal to the larger community and begin to raise money to start it. I tend to observe mostly, when I'm first part of a group. I really like to see how the group dynamics are, who speaks, who says what, those kind of things. Once I get a sense of the players, I begin to participate.

This latest meeting was typical, for the most part, of the other meetings. But I have to say there was for me this moment when I realized in a very salient way that everything that was being discussed was about me. And in a very real and personal way.

About the adoptee.

And there I am, sitting in this group of talented and smart professionals who (mostly) get it. And I had this "a-ha!" moment of clarity.

I was thinking about how it would be for each of them to be in the reverse. For example, what if each of them were in a work group about how to "work" with professional, white social workers. The group was made up of all people of color who were adopted adults and they were discussing all the ways in which white social workers (and therapists) need help. Of course, we had the individual white social worker there so they could advise the rest of us on the particular needs of the white social worker. On the white board we'd list the psychology of white social workers, the "culture" of white social workers, and how we can train people better so they can work with this cultural group of white professionals. We'd "unpack" the "culture" of white social workers. We'd talk about the assessment tools we would create to assess the mental and emotional behaviors of the white social workers. We'd talk about their brain chemistry and how they developed through their childhood and adolescence; how they might have been exposed to pre-natal traumas or stressers that affect the way they work with people of color. We'd talk about what it was like for them to grow up in all-white communities and how that affected their mental health. We'd bring out theoretical models of white social worker behaviors and flow charts. We would discuss the latest trainings we attended on helping white social workers realize their potential and the best therapeutic methods that are available for treating them. Then we would create a year-long program for people of color who interact with white social workers, so that they could have more impact on the lives of these white social workers.

I wonder what it would be like for the white social workers to be the subject and object of all this scrutiny. I wonder what they would say if a whole program was built upon their pathology. I wonder if they would feel comfortable speaking up if they felt the work group made assumptions. I wonder if they would cringe if someone in the group said, "I have teenagers, I'd be open if anyone wants to adopt them" to the chorus of chuckles from the rest of the group. I wonder if any of them would not think it's funny to joke about putting your kids up for adoption.

I wonder if any of them noticed I wasn't laughing.

"American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many"

American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many

This is a series from NPR that highlights the racist underpinnings of the forcible placement of the First Nations people into boarding school.

One of the things I take very seriously is the underlying philosophy of the boarding school idea. It is not that far a stretch from some of the things I hear said to justify international and transracial adoption - perhaps not as openly racist as saying, "that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man" (Colonel Richard Pratt, the founder of the first boarding school, in justifying the reason for forced assimilation of the Native children in Christian boarding schools).

(this photo is of one student before and during his time at the Carlisle boarding school)

I think we must look carefully at history and not blindly follow what seems to be the next idea of what is in the "best interest of the child." History often tells us that what we once believed so strongly and fervently as "best practice" is, in hindsight, potentially destructive to the very people we had hoped to protect.

We must all continue to constantly check for our own biases and prejudices.

Listen to the report at NPR here and part 2 here.

A message from Ethica

From Executive Director, Linh Song

Since we launched our campaign, "Voices for Ethical Adoption-Join the Chorus," I've been I've been receiving troubling information from Vietnam regarding international adoptions.  A social worker wrote how adoption agencies and orphanages are not working with children who are legitimately available for, and in need of, adoption.  Instead, financial motives have structured a process so that infants are provided in order to meet a demand. 

She writes:
"How do I really understand the needs of people who want to adopt a child?  And what about their pressure on policymakers and related programs?  The key issue lies in giving and receiving children purely with the spirit of humanitarianism.  It's also correct that a situation of exploitation can easy develop to turn this into a business, that's not good.  Because both the mother and the child will become victims and that will bring such unspeakable harm."

A researcher also wrote asking for assistance:

"During a recent return to the area in 2007, some parents expressed a concern to me regarding  their children. As one mother explained, local officials from the provincial capital, and communal authorities had come to the village offering help to the children. After some discussions and visits, several households agreed to send their children to the institution.   These were supposed to be short stays, but now apparently many of the children were gone and had not come back to the villages. One mother explained how she had become worried and gone to town to see her children, only to be informed that they were gone. "Do you know if my children have been sold?", she had asked me. She had received a photo picturing what seemed like a ceremony of her children being handed over to foreigners and was now seriously worried about the fate of her children. Others told me that some villagers had received money, apparently as "poverty alleviation" support. Figures mentioned were between 500.000 VND (some 31 USD) and 1.000.000 VND (some 62 USD). 

Mothers, many illiterate, had apparently signed two contracts. One official contract involving support to the child in a provincial children's centre. The other, in hand-writing, entailed giving away all rights to the children. Apparently as many as 10 to 13 children in this small ethnic minority community had been sent to this institution, and many were being adopted without the formal or informed consent of the parents. These included older children such as the siblings Cao Duc Muoi and Cau Duc Buoi aged between 7 and 10 at the time of adoption."

These are the voices that need to be heard as we navigate press coverage on Vietnamese and adoptions worldwide. 

These are the voices seeking assistance since their government can not or will not assist them. 

These are the voices that Ethica advocates for in order to lend transparency and accountability in the adoption process.  Please help support our work so that more of their experiences can come forward.  By raising $20,000 or roughly the cost of one adoption, Ethica will be able to continue assisting thousands of families from the adoption triad and from communities where there are women still asking, "Where are my children?"

Thank you,

Linh Song, Executive Director, Ethica

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More about the Newsweek article

This is always the way the media ends articles about international adoption - especially if there seems to be any concern about ethical concerns.

No one suggests that international adoption will solve the world's ills. But until societies are able or willing to tend to all the victims of their own fractured families, overseas adoptions can continue to serve an important function, sparing tens of thousands of youths from potential neglect, abandonment, danger and a childhood spent between gray walls. "My heart breaks when I think of the conditions at orphanages, of the fate that waits for these babies," says Olga Dereviagina, who cares for toddlers and babies at the infectious-diseases ward of Moscow's Tushinsky hospital. "I wish foreign parents would come in now and take all our babies to some beautiful, kind place, to warm, loving homes." That's what Porras and Milian and countless couples like them wish, too.

Funny. I didn't think beautiful, kind, warm and loving homes were exclusive to foreign countries.

                      

ABC News: "China's Lost Children"

This article from ABC is another reason why we MUST look at the possibility of trafficking of children for international adoption.

From the article:

The 2007 U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons report says that domestic trafficking "remains the most significant problem in China." It estimates that there are up to 20,000 victims each year, but because this is an underground practice, it is virtually impossible to track. Some estimates put the number of children kidnapped or sold on the black market closer to 70,000. The Chinese government says the number is more like 10,000.

Some of the kidnapped children are forced into work, girls often into the sex trade. Others are purchased by families in China who desperately want a child, usually a boy to carry on the family name. But there is also a growing concern that some make their way overseas, with unsuspecting foreign adoptive parents who don't realize that some orphanages have baby-buying programs, offering cash for children.

Another quote (from an orphanage spokesperson):

"We buy babies from migrant workers and farmers from poor provinces. & After the business is done, these people disappear and never come back," she said. She told us the cash-for-babies practice is legal but, according to Chinese law, it is not. It is against the law to buy or sell a child.

Another orphanage worker tells the reporter they pay $300 for a baby girl. Later on the director of this orphanage denies that it buys babies.

And finally this quote talks about the impact foreign adoption is having on families in China who wish to adopt. I take special note of this because some of these concerns were also issues in South Korea for families who want to adopt. Any time agencies receive more money to send their children overseas than to families in the country, I think there is a problem because it encourages agencies to send kids overseas and does not support or encourage domestic adoption.

Pi Yijun, a scholar at the China University of Politics and Law, says that the numbers of international versus domestic adoptions are strictly confidential.

National figures are not even provided to Chinese researchers. He said foreign adoptions are an embarrassment to the government.

"It is considered a negative thing to discuss disabled or abandoned babies. It has to do with China's birth policy and the social insurance system. It's a very sensitive issue."

The influx of foreign applications to adopt Chinese kids is, in many cases, making it more difficult for Chinese couples who can't have children to adopt from orphanages here.

At the orphanage in Changde, the gatekeeper said that foreign families usually spend five to 10 times more on adoptions than Chinese families, which often makes foreign families more attractive. That leads to long wait times for Chinese couples, many of whom resort to the other option, an underground market for infants.

One post on a chat room for Chinese parents looking to adopt expresses the frustration in wait times. "It's very hard to adopt a healthy baby from orphanages in Shanghai. You have to wait probably for five years. & If you really want to adopt one, you will probably have to go to orphanages in other places."

The Chinese government has recently put into effect new restrictions, making it harder for foreigners to adopt Chinese children. There is a definite push by the central government to encourage domestic adoptions, but for some Chinese families, the process is not getting any easier.

The Yang family has been waiting three years to adopt a child. They are both in their late 20s and have been married for six years, but Mrs. Yang can't conceive. They want to adopt a healthy baby girl but have been unsuccessful.

"We visited orphanages, checked orphanages online and put up adoption ads online, but without success," Mr. Yang told ABC News.

Yang says, for some babies, the costs involved with legal adoption are too high. And they are fighting the urge to turn to the black market. "

We don't want to adopt babies from traffickers. Some people introduced to us babies from traffickers, but we don't even want to see them," said Mr. Yang.

 

Simple Economics: No Supply? Bigger Demand

So, this past week there have been numerous articles highlighting the "crisis" of international adoption. Although most every article includes some version of "the kids are the ones who suffer," most of the article titles usually highlight how prospective adoptive parents are suffering.

From Newsweek comes the fear-mongering headline, Who Will Fill the Empty Cribs?

After decades of nonstop growth, the international adoption mill has begun to stall. Driven by rising affluence, falling birthrates and resurgent national pride, many developing nations are much less willing to let their orphans go abroad. Not only can these nations increasingly afford to care for orphans at home, but they have been spooked by highly publicized international baby-selling scandals into tightening rules. Countries as diverse as South Korea, Russia, Kenya and Brazil now openly discourage foreign adoptions. As a result, intercountry adoptions have plunged 10 percent in the top five receiving nations—the U.S, Spain, France, Italy and Canada—since the high point in 2004, when 45,288 children were adopted internationally.

and

"Supplies are dwindling from countries that have traditionally provided the majority of children for international adoptions. The number of Chinese children adopted by the top five receiving nations dropped from a peak of 14,493 in 2005 to 10,743 in 2006; in Russia the number has fallen from 5,829 to 2,781 since 2004. "Russian society is back on its feet both economically and morally," says Elena Afanasyeva, a Duma deputy and member of the Committee on Women and Family. "We are now capable of taking care of our orphans." In China the number of adoption applications now exceeds the country's ability to process them. As a result, authorities have gotten much more choosy about who can adopt, excluding applicants who may be single, obese, taking antidepressants or over 50, among other things. Other source nations have implemented new restrictions to deter outsiders from adopting: South Africa now demands foreigners spend at least five years on native soil before adopting, and Tanzania three years. Moscow temporarily halted its international adoption program last year, partly in response to reports that 14 Russian children had been killed by their foreign adoptive parents since the 1990s." (Read the whole article here)

Other articles:

Families stranded awaiting kids from foreign countries (Thanks to Ed)

Bursting the China Bubble (thanks to Alison)

New Rules and Economy Strain Adoption Agencies

Americans find it harder to adopt

When There’s No Place Like Home

Children's advocates can't agree on how much to emphasize intercountry adoption as a solution. From Newsweek.

UNICEF argues that intercountry adoption is not the only—and certainly not always the best—option for the world's orphans. Alexandra Yuster, a senior adviser in the child-protection section, claims the organization advocates the inclusion of international adoption in the mix of potential solutions for countries seeking homes for orphaned children. But it is much more focused on helping birth families get adequate support from their governments so they can take care of their own kids. "That's our priority because that will help a much larger number of kids—as will promoting domestic adoption," she says. "It's not that we're against intercountry adoption; it's just not a main focus for us."

In part, that's because UNICEF fears financial profit is the driving force behind many intercountry transactions. Because few healthy infants are available for adoption in Western countries, she says, the amount of money prospective parents are willing to pay to complete adoptions of healthy babies has increased. And corruption inevitably follows the money. UNICEF is especially concerned about poor countries like Guatemala, where private attorneys largely control the process and charge upwards of $35,000 per child—almost twice the going rate in countries like China and Vietnam, where government agencies oversee programs.

That kind of profit margin creates a market where one didn't exist before. "We're concerned with the commercialization of vulnerable children," says Yuster. "It gives an incentive to intermediaries to look for the kind of children these families most want to adopt." Some poor mothers are tricked into relinquishing healthy babies, while disabled and older children living in state institutions are left out of the foreign adoption loop because there's no profit incentive to match them with families. "Adoption is supposed to be about finding homes for children, not finding children for families," she says.

                                    

Happy Mother's Day

to all my mothers

- the one in Korea; I hope she has found peace
- the one who raised me; you've come a long way, Baby
- to my mother-in-law; you've been supportive and embracing since day one
- to my momo; thanks for being the heart and soul of my childhood

and to all of the mothers out there, doing the hard and dirty work every day with little thanks and no compensation

hope your day is blessed

NPR: "Adopted Teens Face Higher Risk for ADHD"

People have wondered for a long time whether children who were adopted in infancy are at increased risk for psychological problems. Now, the first study of its kind has found that most are psychologically healthy, though they're at "slightly increased risk" for behavioral problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or oppositional defiant disorder.

Listen to the broadcast on NPR Morning Edition. For another look at the study, check out the Chicago Tribune story. I thought it was very interesting that the children in this study adopted internationally had less of a risk than domestic infant adoptees. From the article:

The researchers had thought that adoptees born overseas would be at higher risk of psychiatric disorders than those who were born and placed in the U.S., but they found the reverse was true.

"Our hypothesis was that international adoptees might have faced ethnic discrimination as they entered the school years and might have experienced a longer period of exposure to pre-adoption adversity in their country of origin, which would lead to a higher risk for psychiatric distress," said Keyes, a research psychologist at the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research.

The assessments did find higher levels of separation anxiety among international adoptees. Teachers also rated this group as significantly more anxious in general than their non-adopted peers.

Debbie Riley, executive director of the Center for Adoption Support and Education in suburban Washington, noted that teens who are adopted face added pressure at a vulnerable time of life.

"Adoption is a significant event in an adolescent's life which cannot be ignored," Riley said. "If ever there's a time when an adoptee is likely to enter therapy, it's during adolescence. . . . This is the time when you form your identity—when you're faced with, 'Who am I?'

"These kids have this extra layer, and the issues are very complex."

Experts said other factors might include genetics, prenatal malnutrition, drug and alcohol exposure, and the post-natal environment, such as conditions in orphanages. Brodzinsky also pointed to the significance of being cut off from one's background and the anxiety the experience can provoke, even when it occurs at an early age.

"When we experience losses, we grieve . . . but too often, adoptees are told: 'You should be grateful.' They don't get to grieve . . . and blocked grief can result in pathology, such as depression," said Brodzinsky, research director of the Donaldson Institute in New York City.

Keyes stressed that her study should not alarm adoptive parents. About 1.5 million children and teens younger than 18 in the U.S. are adopted.

The OAK - 2008 Spring Edition Now Available

With a focus on perspective, the 2008 Spring edition of The OAK features stories by adoptees reflecting on their personal evolution in Korea, a recap of recent and upcoming GOA'L events, how to register for the Korean National Health Insurance plan, as well as a section on adoptee artists.

And remember, GOA'L will be celebrating our 10th Anniversary & Annual Conference, August 1 - 3, 2008 at the Seoul Olympic Parktel.

Check our website for more info: http://www.goal.or.kr
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