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 system.
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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 Bertha and Harry Holt went to Korea and adopted eight war orphans (Rotschild, The Progressive, 1988) after passing a law through Congress. Their work resulted in the founding of 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 served in the Korean war. But Amerasians presently account for fewer than 1% of adoptees. Foreign adoptions serve many purposes for the government (Rothschild, The Progressive, 1988).
Korean traditional society places significant weight on paternal family ties, bloodlines, and purity 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 babies by 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.
Korean adoptees bring in hard currency, which is roughly $15 to $20 million a year. They relieve the government of the costs of caring for the children, which would otherwise be a drain on the budget. International adoption addresses but does not 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 for the infants, and the agencies provide all food, clothing and other supplies free of charge. They also support orphanages, or operate them themselves. Along with advice from 'counselors' at the agencies, this system not only makes the process of giving up a child easier, it encourages it.
When the time for departure arrives, the babies are flown to their foreign families. Payments are routine to maternity hospitals, midwives, obstetricians and 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 (Rothschild, The Progressive, 1988).
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. Despite the fact that many are well adjusted and go on to live happy and successful lives, in Sweden, Korean and other international adoptees are highly overrepresented when it comes to suicide, suicide attempts, mental illness, substance abuse, social maladjustment, crime and other social and personal issues (Hjern et al. 2002).
Number of adopted Koreans by country, from 1953-2001:
| Country | Date range | Adopted Koreans |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 1953–2001 | 99,061 |
| * Guam | 1971–1972 | 3 |
| France | 1968–2001 | 10,923 |
| Sweden | 1957–2001 | 8,622 |
| Denmark | 1965–2001 | 8,417 |
| * Faroe Islands | 1973–2001 | 36 |
| * Greenland | 1971–1992 | 7 |
| 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 |
| Iceland | 1970–1978 | 22 |
| Ireland | 1968–1975 | 12 |
| Poland | 1970 | 7 |
| Spain | 1968 | 5 |
| Republic of China | 1967–1968 | 4 |
| Finland | 1970–1984 | 4 |
| 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).
Korea continues to send children out of the country for adoption; in recent years, roughly 1 of 250 Korean births are adopted by American families alone. There has been a declining trend in adoptions in recent years, but this is only due to a drop in the Korean birth rate, which is now the lowest of any developed country. [1]
Korean Adoptions to the United States, 2001-2005
| Year | Adopted Koreans |
|---|---|
| 2001 | 1,863 |
| 2002 | 1,713 |
| 2003 | 1,793 |
| 2004 | 1,708 |
| 2005 | 1,604 |
(United States Department of Immigration Statistics, 2005)
Korean adoptees have created associations in many countries. Some of these associations are members of the International Korean Adoptee Associations (website [2]), officially created in 2004 as a network for the different associations.
These associations are members of the IKAA :
Other adoptee associations: