Korean Transnational Adoption – A brief history, its effects and

implications

Juli SimensonHistorical Trauma and Healing

“I…want to rid our world of hyphenated and competing identities…I feel myself confined by the term ‘Asian American’ because I feel as if my story is still not a readily recognized piece of that Asian American story…I am SCREAMING out loud in hopes that someone will hear me and we can collaborate together and find new words and new ways.”

- Rebecca J. Kinney, Korean-American adoptee, Asian America

Events leading to dispersal• Japanese Occupation 1910 – 1945

o Genocide

• Divided after Japanese rule ended into two countries by the 38th parallel - 1948o South Korea – The United Stateso North Korea – Soviet Union

Korean War

• 1950 – 1953

• By the end, 215 institutions housed 24,945

children

• 10,000 children of mixed ethnicities had been

abandoned for numerous reasons

• No established infrastructure or social welfare

system existed

“As always in times of war, women fall to the lot of conquerors, and the Korean War did not turn out to be an exception to this rule. Not surprisingly, a sexual exploitation of Korean women took place on a mass scale during the war.” – Tobias Hubinette, Korean Adoption History

Korean adoption• 1954 – the exportation of Korean babies

began in earnest

• 1961 – Orphan Adoption Special Law and The Child Welfare Act– Established legal framework for the speediest

adoption process known at the time

• Adoption flourished

Statistics of placements• United States 1953 – 2013– 114,665

• France 1953 – 2004– 11,090

• Sweden 1953 – 2004– 8,953

• Denmark 1965 – 2004– 8,571

• Norway 1955 – 2004– 6,080

How is this historical trauma?

• Disruption of narrative

• Transnational adoption is an exploitive practice

• Perpetuates the underlying colonial ideology that is the adhesive of transnational adoption

Matters of Identity• Absence of language and culture

• No emotional connection to birth relatives

• Assimilation through “white washing”

– Parents who cannot and do not fully understand the experiences of their child’s racial group

• Confusion about personal identity

• Not seen as “Korean” in the eyes of native Koreans

Connecting and Organizing

How are KADs healing?• By taking control of their own narratives– Film, poetry, music, literature

Where do you stand?• Build awareness about where unethical

practices of adoption may be occurring

• If you want to be an adoptive parent, consider adopting domestically or fostering children in the US

• As social workers, what role are we to take?

Why is this important?• This is still happening – China, Ethiopia, Russia, Guatemala

• A matter of human rights and dignity– “Best interests” of the children involved are often

dismissed

• Invisibility of the mental health issues– Depression, anxiety, suicide