Reflection
I started to draft a reflection on The New York Times article, World’s Largest ‘Baby Exporter’ Confronts Its Painful Past, that was making the rounds in my adoptee communities a few weeks ago but I got behind while transitioning back to work after a sabbatical year and it seems so many adoption-related news and happenings were occurring I almost feel the news cycle has moved on. This article (for which I’ve provided a gift link for those without subscriptions) discusses some of the many concerns many of us have expressed before related to adoption practices – especially transnational/intercountry adoptions.
I was struck by the lead photo for this article. I think it’s interesting how the adoptee and her parents were photographed and the symbolism of that positioning. For me, this article suggests the parents are the focus of the story. I don’t know if the adoptee in this photo did not want her face shown or if this was a decision by the photojournalist to position the family this way but to me, it suggests that we adoptees are replaceable and secondary to the adoptive parents as the focus of the story. I had suggested on my social media sites that news stories about adoption and adoptees almost always feature an adoptee with their adoptive parents. A few exceptions might be if an adoptee is estranged from their adoptive parents, or if their adoptive parents have died. But what I find interesting is how often stories about adoptees – especially transracial adoptees – must include a photo of themselves with their adoptive parents.
Many years ago, I had a conflict with the NYT when I was interviewed as an expert for a story about transracial adoption. While the story did share I was also an adoptee, the part I was interviewed about related to adoption practice and policy – not my personal adoption story. Yet, a photojournalist wanted to take a photo of me with my adoptive parents. When I declined, I was asked to provide a photograph of myself with my adoptive family. I again declined and it was clear the photojournalist was upset by this.
Here’s the thing: as a professional who was interviewed for my professional expertise, I did not see why I needed to submit a photograph of myself with my adoptive parents. I could understand including a photograph of me but as a professional. Other professionals do not need to submit photographs with their parents. This is a way media continues to perpetuate adoptees as forever children, as only existing in the context of their adoptive families.
Recommendations
Several additional items related to South Korea were published over the past few weeks. In addition to the article I reflected on above, this video from South China Morning Post came across my feed.
Another article about Korea comes from the Guardian. The article, Korea is hiding our past: The adoptees searching for their families and the truth also focuses on the way Korean adoption agencies and facilitators falsified, erased, or obscured information about adoptees’ Korean families and identities as a standard practice in the process of sending children out of the country for adoption.
And, a Canadian news outlet published Paper Orphans, also features the stories of adoptees discovering their paperwork and information was false, often intentionally omitted or falsified by adoption agencies.
I’m working on a reflection of these stories coming out of Korea – more to come about the impact of these stories.
Research
I wanted to highlight some research articles. This first one is a study of undocumented parents whose unaccompanied children were separated from them by the U.S. This part of one parent’s testimony hit a chord with me because it is what I fear – that these vulnerable parents will lose their children to the adoption system. The parent stated,
“My daughter was taken to Michigan and spent two months alone in a shelter. And there, they asked me to do papers and said they would give her up for adoption if I didn’t get the papers.“
You can read the article, Experiences of Undocumented Parents Reuniting with Children Who Entered the United States as Unaccompanied Minors, by Maryam Rafieifar and colleagues, here.
The second article to share is by Irina Manta and Cassandra Burke Robertson. Their article Adopting Nationality argues that transnational adoptees should be entitled to “permanence of nationality.” This article focuses on the lack of citizenship of some transnational adoptees. You can see the abstract here.
Share the Love
Author and publisher Denene Millner wrote a novel inspired by her personal experience as an adoptee. One Blood tells the story of an adoptee and her two mothers – her first mother and her adoptive mother. In this Popsugar article, Denene reveals she learned she was adopted when she was 12 years old and discusses how her own personal journey inspired this novel.
I love discovering more adoptee creatives – go check out Denene’s work!
Harlow's Monkey 