the current24:51China suddenly abolishes international adoption
A Quebec man and his wife are heartbroken after China suddenly halted most international adoptions, dashing their hopes of adopting a little boy they’d spent years getting to know.
“We feel we have a special connection with him,” said Pierre Lemay of Quebec City.
“We received pictures, videos … we were watching him grow, learn things, do the things little boys do,” he said. The Current Matt Galloway.
LeMay and his wife, Natalie Bissonette, who were married in 2015 and are now in their late 40s, began the adoption process several years ago and were matched with a 4-year-old boy in early 2020. But the pandemic slowed their application process, and the boy, who has special needs and a heart defect, is now 8 years old.
Lemay said he is in the penultimate stage of the application process and is waiting for permission to travel to China and bring the boy back to Canada.
China quietly ended its international adoption system last week, a move that has left prospective adoptive families in a bind and adopted children fearing it will make it even harder to find their birth families.
But on September 5, China announced it was ending its international adoption system with immediate effect, to bring its policies “in line” with international trends, and only blood relatives will be allowed to adopt children or stepchildren from other countries.
“We would like to express our gratitude to the foreign governments and families who want to adopt Chinese children for their goodwill and the love and kindness they have shown.” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said:
Lemay confirmed the change to the adoption agency and the Quebec government, and he hopes the federal government will encourage China to complete applications that are already underway.
“Given our ages, I don’t think there’s any other chance,” he said.
In an emailed statement the currentImmigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said it was “working closely with its Chinese counterparts to review any changes.” The Chinese Embassy in Canada did not respond to a request for comment.
LeMay is worried about the boy.
“Given his age and condition, I don’t know if he’ll ever find a family,” he said.
Adoptions are in a steady decline
Delia Ramsbotham, who runs an adoption agency in British Columbia, said she was surprised China didn’t allow existing applications to continue but wasn’t surprised the program was ending.
“There are a significant number of countries around the world that are no longer doing international adoptions or have significantly reduced them,” said Ramsbotham, executive director of Sunrise Family Services Society, a licensed non-profit adoption agency in Vancouver.
“[That’s] This is also because we have built systems internally to meet the needs of children.”
China has not explained why it is ending the program, but observers speculate that it could be related to falling birth rates, the end of the one-child policy in 2015 and an increase in domestic adoptions.
“If China decides they no longer need to find families abroad for their children, that’s a success story,” Ramsbotham said.
China has abandoned its strict one-child policy, a change it hopes will help alleviate the problems of an aging population and shrinking workforce.
She said adoptions from China have been steadily declining since the country joined. Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption Canada is also a signatory to the treaty, which imposes strict safeguards to ensure that all adoptions are in the best interests of the child.
“Countries that have signed the Hague Convention recognise that the best place for a child to be raised is the family,” Ramsbotham said.
“Keeping them with their biological families, finding them families locally or, if that’s not possible, finding families somewhere else, that’s the number one priority.”
What actually happened7:19US couple denounces China’s decision to stop foreign adoptions as “inhumane”
IRCC said in a statement that 10 minors were adopted from China and granted Canadian citizenship in 2023. Five Chinese children had been adopted as of July this year.
Ramsbotham worries about the children whose applications are underway: under the Hague Convention, Chinese authorities must rule out domestic options to be deemed eligible for international adoption.
She worries that this means these children have little chance of being adopted locally and may end up out of state care and facing an uncertain future.
Finding a connection to your culture
China’s international adoption program was officially launched in 1992. Strictly enforce the one-child policyMore 160,000 childrenMost of the children, mostly girls and children with disabilities, were adopted internationally.
Nikki Rottenberg adopted her daughter, Shelley Rottenberg, from China in 1996 and raised her in Dundas, Ontario. Because there were few people of Asian descent in the community, Nikki worked hard to expose Shelley to Asian culture.
“I wanted my daughter to feel Chinese, so I took her to see all the Chinese things in the area,” Nikki said.
Despite their hard work, it wasn’t until later in life that Shelley found the connection she had been missing through a community of other foster children.
“We all had a lot in common and we all understood each other,” said Shelley, who is now co-director of China’s Children International, a nonprofit that supports Chinese adopted children.
Jenny Haejun Wills was adopted from South Korea in the early 1980s and grew up in Kitchener, Ontario. Her memoir, Older sister. Not necessarily related by blood. It explores how her adoption led to “feelings of racial and ethnic division” that continue to shape her experience of the world.
She said the current Even after finding and reuniting with his first family in Korea, the wounds did not heal immediately.
“I didn’t have the language skills or the cultural knowledge. I just wasn’t equipped to build and maintain those relationships,” says Heijun Wills, an English professor at the University of Winnipeg. New essay collection explores family and belonging.
“Adoption is not a single act or a completed event. It’s something that has a lingering impact that I think has left a mark on every aspect of my life,” she said.
Mothers forced to give up their babies
Last week, the South Korean government The survey results were announced An investigation into accusations of misconduct in international adoptions in the decades after World War II and the Korean War, the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that some mothers were coerced into agreeing to adoptions and some babies were forcibly taken away.
Changes are also occurring in other countries. Denmark’s only international adoption agency announced in January would cease business Due to concerns about fraud and document forgery, Norway Strict process control In June.
Heijun Wills said he understood that China’s end to its adoption system was causing mental distress to people applying to adopt.
But international adoption “is too often thought of as a system focused on helping adults become parents,” she said.
“In the midst of these incredibly emotionally charged moments, the voices of adopted people and first families are often drowned out or silenced.”
After reading a CBC article about fake orphanage papers in South Korea, Taylor Mihwa began looking into the truth about adoption. She describes the unforgettable moment she was reunited with her two biological sisters at the airport last December.
Ramsbotham, of the British Columbia adoption agency, pointed to the harm done to Indigenous children during the 1960s Scoop and said “it’s really important that we don’t repeat the same mistakes of the past.”
She said adoption agencies are now more aware of the importance of helping internationally adopted children maintain connections with their birth cultures, as well as listening to adult adoptees and learning from their experiences.
She said most agencies are currently prioritizing finding homes for children who need them over finding children for parents who want them.
“It’s a shame that this generation of kids are missing out on this opportunity. [of growing up with a family] It’s because of what happened historically,” she said.
Haejun Wills said she understands where those feelings come from.
“But when the system is potentially corrupt and companies are profiting from the forced migration of children, we absolutely need to take a step back and think critically about these processes,” she said.
