The Quest for a Child of One’s Own: Parents, Markets and Transnational Adoption

Abstract

Transnational adoption is currently at its peak. The direction of these adoptions is from south to north and from east to west. Scrutiny of previous research shows that there is a discrepancy between the supply and demand of children for adoption. While there are millions of orphans and children in the world needing homes, Western adoptive parents queue for what are considered to be ‘adoptable’ children. Drawing on 15 thematic interviews with Finnish adoptive parents this article considers the reasons behind the recent trend to adopt from abroad, and how parental preferences are formed in individual families. It is shown that adopting is primarily connected to family formation, and is linked to a powerful desire to experience parenthood. Parental preferences are a function of the changing demands and expectations of parenting in general in the West. Adoption from abroad just provides a new way of fulfilling these expectations. The ideal child is a healthy female infant of European or Asian origin that allows the adoptive parents to fulfil and perform their ideal parental roles. On the global level parents’ hopes and anxieties result in the stratification of children in transnational adoption by age, skin colour, health and gender, further escalating the discrepancy between demand and supply.

Experiences of Parents of Children Adopted from Overseas: A Thematic Analysis of Narratives

“…In regard to gender, girls were generally more preferred than boys by adoptive parents (Hogbacka, 2008). Additionally, these studies indicated that ethnic characteristics contributed to the hierarchy (Hogbacka, 2008).…”

“…According to Hogbacka (2008), intercountry adoption in its present form began after the Second World War as a humanitarian effort to rescue children orphaned by the war. This phenomenon became more widespread during the 1960s as the number of infants available for domestic adoptions decreased as a result of changing attitudes toward single motherhood, wider availability of contraceptives, and changes in abortion practices (Hogbacka, 2008). However, the most notable increase in intercountry adoptions occurred in the 1990s when the one-child policy in China produced many abandoned children, and the Soviet Union opened its borders (Voigt & Brown, 2013).…”

“…There are various factors that affect this phenomenon, with the main four listed as "war, imbalance in socioeconomic conditions between the sending and receiving countries, organizational linkages between them, and a political decision in the sending country to allow intercountry adoptions" (Hogbacka, 2008, p. 313). Other influences include policies that limit women's reproductive rights, poverty, and lack of support systems for poor families and single mothers (Hogbacka, 2008). Overall, policies of sending countries play a significant role in the supply of children available for adoption.…”

“…The predominant motivating factor to adopt among the majority of individuals, however, is infertility (Young, 2012). Infertility resulting from delayed childbearing is increasing all over the developed world, and most people who are looking to adopt are involuntarily childless (Hogbacka, 2008). According to the studies of Australian adoptive parents and Finnish infertility doctors reviewed by Hogbacka (2008), there was a hierarchy of preferences in regard to having children.…”

“…Infertility resulting from delayed childbearing is increasing all over the developed world, and most people who are looking to adopt are involuntarily childless (Hogbacka, 2008). According to the studies of Australian adoptive parents and Finnish infertility doctors reviewed by Hogbacka (2008), there was a hierarchy of preferences in regard to having children. These studies found that the most desired scenario for the parents was to have a biological child, followed by a child born with the assistance of reproductive technology.…”