A Deeper Look Into Adoption Practices
When examining Korean International Adoption loosely, it is very difficult to see the issues that revolve around the very subject. The fact is, many initial reasons for these adoptions did not stem from good human nature, but selfish greed and racial purification.
Right now, the business of international adoptions in Korea is roughly estimated at $15-$20 million dollars per year. The government not only gains this money, but saves much more money from social welfare funding of these children. Many times, Korean Adoption Agencies are also primary funders of homes for pregnant women. The homes charge birth mothers approximately 80 dollars a month to take care of the children. Although it is difficult to prove the intentions of these adoption agencies, its it not hard to see the correlation of exchange. Adoption agencies are priming mothers to willfully give their children away and "bribing" them with an easy service. The issue is not in adoption itself, but all the previous steps that were ensured to make international Korean adoption possible. Is it possible the system is creating more "unwanted" kids than there should be? |
Broken Transition
With the adoption process completed, many South Korean orphans transition their lives into western culture as Asian American citizens. Many of these adoptees are mostly born into middle to upper-class Anglo American households where parents are not exactly taught how to teach their new children how to deal with their identities. Households were not taught to arm children with the knowledge of their origins and how to deal with educating them of their differences. There has been a recent shift to open up culture practices to South Korean adoptees. However, there is still primary materials provided by agencies and it is not a requirement of households. It was not until the end of the 1990's to the early 2000's were people of color finally able to adopt South Korean orphans.
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Possible Solutions
There are still many problems in the International Adoption community, but several solutions may be utilized to help fix these problems and lessen the traumatic effects. First, the education in contraception should be applied to help South Korean women deal with these problems. Due to Holt International being a Christian based organization, it is possible that the agency does not necessarily teach women about all the different ways in birth control. If this issue is addressed firstly with young women in South Korea, then there may be a possible decline in the rate of children without biological parents. The second issue that needs to be taken into account is the large AmerAsian population that dominates many venues of parentless children. If the American government was to hold more soldiers accountable for overseas pregnancies, then there is a high possibility that soldiers would not be contributing to "fatherless children". These are merely two small measures we could take to lessen the population of orphans in South Korea.