Although international adoption has brought me two blessings of the most wonderful kind, I have remained ambivalent about Korea's general domestic social welfare response to poverty and single parenthood. It's changing, but change is slow.
Check out this article from SFGate.com:
Korean-born in U.S. return to a home they never knew
Many locate lost families, others work to change international adoption policy
Note the thread about racial isolation.
Monday, September 12, 2005
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2 comments:
Korea won't be shut down anytime soon. The domestic social infrastructure just isn't there. The Korean IA program is very stable and doesn't see the same ups and downs as many other international programs.
Having said that, I do believe that IA should be the last step in the hierarchy for children needing families whose own birthfamilies or kin is unable to raise them.
Times have changed, yes, and much for the better. However, none of us can blind ourselves (the white folks amongst us anyway) to the part that race plays and will continue to play for our families and our children.
I am continuing to move strongly in the direction that it is wrong to raise non-white children in all-white communities. I do believe, more than ever, that our children need to see themselves represented in the everyday faces of school mates, neighbors, and at the grocery store.
I'm not talking about self-imposed ghettos. But I am talking about true community/neighborhood diversity.
No, I have never encountered any hostility. But I have seen various degrees of discomfort that has more to do, I think, with the realization that my children are my children because family/society in Korea made it difficult or impossible for my children to be raised by their birth families. Most birth mothers choose international adoption for their babies, in part, because they see IA as a transparent process.
In Korea, many folks will still try to hide a child's adoptive status from others, and sometimes the child themselves.
And as a society we were doing much of the same not too long ago.
We now live in a community with a significant Asian/Korean population. Most were born elsewhere, their children born here in the US. My kids play with their kids, not an issue. We're friendly, neighborly.
What will be more interesting, down the road, will be when my kids become teens. My KADs will lead with their Asian-ness when dating kids of other colors. My KADs will lead with their adopted-ness when dating KA kids.
And then there's that Jewish thing :=)
It's my understand that you'd find a Korean church generally welcoming, but you'll need to see for yourself as your mileage may vary.
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