TRANSNATIONAL MOVEMENT

Transnational Movement

Transnational Adoption: “Diaper Diaspora”

Introduction

Popularly viewed as a humanitarian issue that transcends not only geopolitical boundaries of nationality but also sociopolitical borders of race, the ways in which transnational adoption reflects the racialization of children are often ignored. Because adoption is not a random process of family building but rather a purposive endeavor that involves the multiple dynamics of race, class, gender, sexual orientation and disability, it is important to recognize how trends in transnational adoption intersect with shifting racial structure. This paper aims to examine visas issued to orphans entering the USA from 1990-2005, international programs offered by US adoption agencies, and juxtaposes these with policies governing adoption in sending countries to illustrate how transnational adoption mirrors these emerging racial categories.

Discussion

Neoliberal adoption policies in the USA have resulted in supporting color-blind adoption practice with the argument that transracial and transnational adoptions provide partial solutions to poverty and racism; therefore, curtailing these adoptions would only worsen deprivation for individual children. Popularly viewed as a humanitarian issue that transcends not only geopolitical boundaries of nationality but also sociopolitical borders of race, the ways in which transnational adoption reflects the racialization of children are often ignored. Although the “diaper diaspora” serves a relatively small fraction of the world's needy children, this type of migration has grown substantially in the USA tripling in numbers in the past 20 years. Because adoption is not a random process of family building but rather a purposive endeavor that involves the multiple dynamics of race, class, gender, sexual orientation and disability, it is important to recognize how trends in transnational adoption intersect with our shifting racial structure. This paper examines visas issued to orphans entering the USA from 1990 to 2005 international programs offered by US adoption agencies and juxtaposes these with policies governing adoption in different countries to illustrate how transnational adoption mirrors these emerging racial categories (Weiss, 2006).

Growth of the “diaper diaspora”

Comprising less than 5 per cent of the migrating population to the USA, transnational adoptees have not been a significant factor in national population growth (Solinger, 2001). However, attendant to privatization and precipitating demographic and cultural factors, US participation in transnational adoptions has grown from 6,472 in 1992 to 22,728 in 2005. British demographer and adoption expert Selman (2002) describes participation of nation-states as shifting and points out that poverty is not the only or even primary indicator of sending countries' participation, nor is high birth rate[3]. Selman includes other factors such as cultural proscriptions against unwed motherhood, preferences for male children, and institutionalized practices or “inertia”, where once having begun this activity; countries find it difficult to stop. Others, such as law professor Smolin (2006) suggest that participation involves substantive contributions to the economies of some countries through legitimate and illegal means. (Selman 2007)

Growth in transnational adoption has been accompanied by growth in private agencies as the US remains the largest adopter of foreign children and relies primarily on private adoption and independent adoption sources to engage in this activity (Masson, ...