Monday, February 8, 2010
International Adoption: Saviors or Kidnappers?
"Amid catastrophe in Haiti, a new controversy about adoptions."
Adoption is a touchy subject. Everyone feels differently about it and probably strongly stands by that opinion. But I think we can all agree that when children are being considered "orphans" when they still have families, and then adopted by parents in other countries never be seen or heard from again, something isn't right. This is the case in several countries including Haiti, Chad, the Darfur region of Sudan, Romania, China, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, and Guatemala.
Now in many cases adopting children from other countries is not a bad thing at all. These children have no home and they often end up with loving, financially stable parents. Especially in America, "where parents adopt more foreign children than all the rest of the world." The problem is that the countries with the highest inter-country adoption rates also have some of the weakest governments in the world. The adoptive parents are supposed to send reports of the children to their home countries, and these reports are not enforced or if sent, kept track of. "Many critics of inter-country adoption cite experiences in Romania... of the 30,000 children adopted by foreigners between 1990 and 2000, around 20,000 are now untraceable..." This is the problem on every one's mind: human trafficking. Where are those children now?
Remember when we learned about supply and demand? Well, I do! That is how this article relates to economics. These children are in high demand. At some adoption agencies the process "may cost more than $30,000." Guatemala was "once the source of 5,000 annual adoptions, mainly to America." And "about 10,000 foreign adoptions a year take place in China." And when a country, like Romania, suspends its inter-adoption policy, the adoption agencies simply move to another country where the laws are less strict, like Moldova or the Ukraine. Because these children are in such high demand, the adoption agencies are rushing to supply. For example, the Christian group that tried to take 33 children across the Haiti border "where they apparently hoped to build an orphanage." They had no paperwork, and it turned out that many of the children had families. The same thing happened in Chad when a French agency, Zoe's Ark, was accused of kidnapping 103 children. "Many turned out to be local children, and not orphans."
I am not saying every inter-country adoption agency is bad. Adoption is a beautiful thing. But when the children are taken from homes that already exist, to other countries and strange faces, the matter needs to be investigated, the problem needs to be solved, and the children need to be protected.
Terms-
Inter-country adoption- a family in America adopts a child from another country, such as Haiti
Law of supply- if other things stay the same, the quantity supplied will increase as the price increases
Law of demand-amount of a good or service that people are willing or able to buy. When price changes, the demand either rises or falls.
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This is a really excellent point. Human trafficking is a huge problem, and children are mainly ones who are trafficked. People need money, and unfortunately, children are a way to gain it. Adopting children is in high demand but parents in addition to adoption agencies may not be responsible. It was very intersting.
ReplyDeleteI really think that you have an excellent view on inter-country adoption and one that I personally agree with. So these agencies are moving to countries where the laws are less strict because they want to more easily put these children into slave trade. I was wondering, maybe it was stated in the article, your blog, or not at all but are there any laws in America concerning people adopting children from other countries? Laws that would require more or further investigation into the oversea agencies.
ReplyDeleteWhy is international adoption so expensive? It can't only be that the children are being "sold" at high prices because they are in high demand. There are real expenses here. What are these costs?
ReplyDeleteHey Nieves!
ReplyDeleteI really like your article and it is true, how do we know if the children are really orphans. The UN deals with human trafficking especially with children. The matter can get really tricky and messy when it come to foreign countries. I know that international adoption usually takes a couple of years until the family can actually take the orphan into their home. However, with Haiti some have been able to adopt very quickly because of the national crisis. Do you think the governments of both countries should make an acception to the time frame due to the crisis?
great blog nieve!! i think its really important for the public to know that, at times, the children being adopted from developing worlds still have parents and a home. my opinion is that some celebrities and well known people are adopting children from other countries and are kind of "setting a trend". so there....theres my comment. :)
ReplyDeleteTrafficking is definitely an important subject that never gets talked about as much as it should. It most often happens to children or people who are overlooked as "people." Many of Americans feel sympathy for them and their families struggling but have no empathy. If we truly cared about them we would be concerned about finding and reuniting the children with their families. Most of the business and economy in America is due to taking advantage of people outside of our country. So do you think that trafficking is one of our cheap supply, huge profit gemmicks? (just like sweatshops in China and Vietnam)
ReplyDeleteHey Nieve! This is a great topic, and I agree that there is high demand in adopting children which usually results in human trafficking. You also said that most of these chilren already have homes and that they are being essentially kidnapped to start an orhapnage. However, it may also be that some families are giving their children to orphanages because they are no longer able to properly take care of them. Do you think this is likely?
ReplyDeleteNieve, this was a very thought provoking article and I really liked the way you tied it with economics. Adopting children from different countries does seem in demand now-a-days. I think you are right, adoption needs to be done correctly, not taking children from their homes when their homes are already existant. Do you think that human trafiking affects our economy? Is it even a legitamite buisness that should be counted as part of our economy?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYo Nieve!
ReplyDeleteYour blog was great and all of the information was well writtten and accurate. Adopting children from other countries seems to be becoming more popular. I do agree that adoption needs to be done investigated more thoroughly, because children shouldn't be just taken from their home. My question to you is: Do you think our government monitors human trafficking closely enough??
Great title (as Ms. Spengeman stated)
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read the title . . "Saviors or Kidnappers?" I purposely did not read the article, but instead I immediately thought gave my own opinion which is:
One can only answer this when one sees the outcome of the child and watch the interaction with family.
You stated that when children are taken from homes that already exist, the problem needs to be solved and the children need to be protected. In what ways do you mean "problem"? How can Americans or the home country of those children provide protection?
Great Article and great detail Nieve!
- Ella
ANSWER to BriannaKB's question:
ReplyDeleteI did find a lot of information about finalizing inter country adoption. It varies from state to state but it is usually required that the adoptive parents obtain another birth certificate and the state child department (name?) will visit the house once. However this is if the adoption is finalized in the other country, and I am not sure how the Haiti adoption agencies are functioning at the moment. The main problem is that after the government checks the parents once, the parents may not send the report updates and the child might get lost in the system or, of course, live happily ever after.
ANSWER to Ella's question:
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that not all the children are accounted for. Yes, every situation is different, but when you have thousands of children that are untraceable it isn't good. I don't know if I really got this in my blog, but the article talks about how it was better for the children to stay in their home country and be adopted in their home country. It is like what we learned in government about how the talented people left Haiti so then Haiti couldn't flourish as much because all its bright students were going to another country to be productive. Inter country adoption doesn't solve any of the country's social justice problems, instead children are taken away from their homeland, where they could have become active members of their community and economy.
ANSWER to Kolbs's question:
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Well human trafficking isn't really something that is monitored... its like illegal and shouldn't be happening at all. So to answer your question, no I do not think the government to doing enough to stop human trafficking. However, all the countries of the world would have to commit to changing their policies in order to end it permanently.
ANSWER to kathrine's question:
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Yes, I definitely think that human trafficking affects our economy. I think it is part of slave labor, sweat shops, forced prostitution, child prostitution, and illegal immigration. All these things affect the flow of money in our country. They put money into the black market and take it away from legitimate business. For example, if I can kidnap a small children and then force them to make beaded necklaces for me without paying them, I can then afford to sell those necklaces cheeper than someone who pays her workers. Then I take business away from that person and soon she has no job and the economy still sucks.
ANSWER to Katia's question:
ReplyDeleteYes, it is completely true that some families give their children to adoption agencies because they can no longer properly take care of them. However, as I said to Ella, adopting the children and asking no questions does nothing to solve the larger problem of poverty and sadness.
ANSWER to AllieJ's question:
ReplyDeleteI think that human trafficking has to do more with individual profit than something like sweat shops, which would help an American company make more money.
I completely agree with your comment that if we had empathy we would be concerned with reuniting the families instead of separating them.
Wow. I never thought of adoption in that way before. I thinks t is reaally intersting how there are so many documents being lost and so many lines of communication between a child and their home country cut off.
ReplyDeleteNice connection between supply & demand and adoption.