Introduction to International Adoption

The process of adopting a child from a foreign country is known as international adoption. In the United States, over 8% of all adoptions (including domestic ones) are interracial. But, when looking at international adoption figures only, interracial adoptions, meaning joining a child of one race with parents of another race, constitute a majority.

Because the U.S. and the European Union member states are among the most highly developed countries, most adoptive parents come from there. However, different laws and regulations regarding international adoptions are a major influence on the number of countries actively participating in international adoptions. Some countries, such as China and Vietnam, have basic well-known rules and regulations for parents from other countries wishing to adopt a child from their country, whereas other countries, for example, United Arab Emirates will not allow it at all. Many African nations have made international adoption almost nonexistent by requiring the adoptive parents to live there and become residents for a certain amount of time.

American parents adopt children from many countries, but China has the highest number to date, followed by Russia, Guatemala, S. Korea, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, India, Columbia, and Philippines.

The number of adopted children from foreign countries changes each year depending on how, and if, the regulations regarding international adoptions change. Belarus, Romania and Cambodia were much more actively involved in international adoptions until their government made their laws much stricter in an attempt to stop the steady occurrence of abuse. In 2005, Vietnam and the United States signed a treaty allowing Vietnamese children to be adopted by Americans.

The ratio of boys and girls being adopted in very close with the exception of a few countries. In India, about 68% of the children adopted are girls, whereas South Korea has 60% adopted boys. The number of girls adopted in China far outnumbers boys due to the Chinese culture’s “son preference” which correlates with their official planned birth policy. This policy, known in the Western Society as the “one-child policy”, states that only one child is allowed per couple in the urban areas. Because the son is the preferred sex, the daughters are then adopted out.

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