Adoption in South Korea

I wrote a little about our take on International Adoption in general so now I want to write specifically about South Korea. Since we sort of stumbled (happily) onto the one agency in the US that can currently place children from SK in Texas (until then we didn't think it was an option), we didn't know a ton about Korean adoptions. It's been very interesting to learn more about it. Here are some things we've learned from different articles, blogs, and web sites. Hopefully it's all accurate or as close as it can be. I wanted to write some facts on Social Welfare Society (the Korean agency that our US agency works with) but their website has been down. I'll write specially about SWS when I can get to the site again.

Adoption in SK started in 1955 right after the Korean War. Many children were left as orphans because of the war and there were many "GI Babies" (fathered by US or other western soldiers) filling up the orphanages. A man from the US adopted 8 orphans and eventually founded Holt International Children's Services (currently one of the largest adoption agencies in the US).

Social stigma plays a huge role when it comes to domestic adoption in SK. Paternal family ties and blood lines are incredibly important. Because of this, domestic adoption is rare. Males are less likely to be adopted because inheritance and future blood lines come from them. Since Korean society is patriarchal, all lineage is tied to the man's family. When a woman gets married she inherits her husbands lineage. Adopting a daughter gives her a chance to have this when she marries. An adopted son would have no family name or register and would have a much harder time in society.

Because of the social stigma, Ninety-five percent of families who do adopt (although, like I said it's rare) choose babies less than a month old so that they can pass them off as their natural born offspring, overlooking older adoptable children.

Poverty and social stigma seem to be the two main reason women give their children up for adoption. Although in some ways, SK is somewhat similar to the US (such as technology and medical care), there are areas of the country where people live in extreme poverty and cannot afford to raise their children. As for the social stigma, a single young woman who is pregnant or has a baby outside of marriage can be shunned by her family, unable to get a job, denied from renting an apartment and ostracized by society. The government has very little to no social programs for unwed mothers who choose to raise their own children.

South Korea has one of the highest rates of abortion compared to other countries around the world.

And as far as the SK government's role in taking care of orphaned/abandoned children, child welfare remains one of the most underdeveloped areas in Korean society.

It's hard to determine numbers (the SK government isn't incredibly open about it), but Korea has almost 30,000 children in public orphanages. There are also an untold number in private institutions.

Although the majority of children adopted internationally from SK come to the US, children are adopted all around the world. Other countries who adopt are Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Germany.

As in most international adoptions, much of the cost goes to the Korean government & social welfare agencies. The money is used for medical care and necessities for those babies still waiting to be matched with families, orphanages, supporting the foster parents caring for the children, counseling and services for birthmothers and other social support.

As in many countries, parents who can't afford to care for their children will simply "drop them off" at an orphanage.

Because SK began allowing their children to be adopted internationally long before many other countries did, most children adopted into the US were from SK (from the '50's - 90's). However, the numbers have dropped dramatically in the past 10 years. Reasons for this is that the SK government is putting quotas on how many children can be adopted internationally, as well as the pushing for domestic adoption. In 2008, China, Guatemala, Russia, & Ethiopia had a larger number of children adopted into the US.

In an effort to increase domestic adoption, as of January 2007, children available for adoption must wait at least five months for a possible domestic placement before being considered for intercountry adoption. However, it is very very unlikely that a child will be adopted domestically after three. There are many other countries who have these types of rules, some requiring them to wait 1 or even 2 years.

Korean government offers incentives to (domestic) families who adopt, including housing, education, and medical subsides. This is sort of ironic because it offers less "incentives" to unwed mother's who want to raise their own children. And although domestic adoption has risen in the last few years, it is still rare.

Despite the efforts by the SK government, of the 9,420 children available for adoption in 2005, only 1,461 were adopted domestically while 2,101 children were allowed to be adopted overseas. So what happened to the nearly 6,000 children who did not get adopted domestically or abroad?

2008 was the first year that domestic adoptions were higher than international adoptions. However, it probably isn't because there has been a great increase in domestic adoption. It's more likely due to the fact that government is allowing a lower number of children to be adopted internationally.

There are 22 adoption agencies in SK. Of those, 4 facilitate international adoptions. The SK agency that our US agency works with is called Social Welfare Society.

In the mid-90's Korea decided that it wanted to stop allowing their children to be adopted internationally by about 2015. I've heard some reports that it will happen and some that it will not. The SK government has been pushing domestic adoption, the numbers have risen and society is beginning, ever so slowly, to change their ideas on adoption. I'm not sure if they are quite ready yet to end International adoption without having these children go into orphanages, but hopefully one day soon they will be.

Here are three articles I found interesting:

Orphanages in South Korea? Don't ask, don't tell.

South Korea and It's Children

South Korea Orphans