Search Results (8)

This essay focuses on the Greek adoptees’ search for identity and on the agrafa, or the “unwritten” territories, into which this search penetrates. The Greek adoptees represent an underresearched case study of the postwar intercountry adoption movement (1950–1975). Creating a narrative of the self is key to the adoptees’ identity formation, but their personal narrative is often undermined by stereotypes and denunciations that stunt its development. The research presented here has been guided by questions that interrogate the verdict-making or “sentencing” associated with the adoptees’ identity-shaping process: their sentencing to subjugation by stock opinions, the denouncing of their alternative viewpoints about “rescue” adoptions, and the verdict of their entrapment in feel-good master narratives. This essay also explores broader research questions pertaining to modes of interrogating “historic” adoptions from Greece. It is concerned with the why rather than with the how or the who of the oldest, post-WWII intercountry adoption flows. In what forums and genres (narrative, visual, journalistic, scholarly) are Greek adoption facts and legacies articulated, mediated, and/or materialized? How do memories, both positive and negative, underpin current projects of self-identification and transformation? What are the adoptees’ preferred outlets to speak about embodied experiences, and are those satisfactory? Based on a mixed methods approach, the essay ties these steps in identity growth to the Adoptee Consciousness Model, illustrating the five phases of consciousness that the adoptees may experience throughout their lives. Full article

This essay examines relationships between adoptees and the (extended) adoptive family, focusing on the inheritance rights of adopted persons as entry points into levels and cycles of their belonging and un-belonging. The essay contextualizes a case report (or summary reports) on the kind of estrangement in the adoptee world that is fueled by inheritance disputes. It delves into postadoption perceptions and thus into the “unwritten” truths about adoption and its possible fallout. It draws from archival sources, semi-structured interviews (life-story interviewing), and life writing by adoptees, and also from a sequence of real-life exchanges dating back to 2018. All these sources focus on the contested inheritance of children, now older adults, who were adopted from Greece in the 1950s–60s and who became (or should have become) subsequent heirs to the estates of their adoptive parents and/or relatives. The Greek out-of-country adoptions of the postwar and early Cold War era involved more than 4000 children, most of whom were sent to the United States. The various testimonies and sections reflect critically on the continuing trend to infantilize the adopted persons, forever the adopted children, to push their origins back into the past and into geographical distance, to untie the family connections they have forged over the course of half a century. The examples take the reader from the adoptive family’s pre-adoption attempts at disowning the child through the postadoption stage of the end of an adopted lifetime, including cases of the extended adoptive family’s attempts at “de-adopting” the adopted person. This essay includes various sources of life-cycle documentation, among them an extensive case study and online obituaries. It adheres to truth and authenticity by incorporating fairly long original quotations, which, in the case study of the second half especially, assist the reader in comprehending much historical information in a question-and-answer format. This bolder structure offers the advantage of taking the reader step by step through the transactions of a prominent Greek adoption scheme (Rebecca and Maurice Issachar) and also through the various layers of the postadoption mindset and minefield. The material presented here is intended to raise awareness that change can and must still benefit the Greek adoptees today, whose lives may have been permeated by conditionality and nonlinearity. I conclude that, in the cases discussed here, the child’s orphanhood may well be a perpetual state, with the adoptee being orphaned of individuality and of a protective family on more than just one occasion. Full article

This preliminary empirical study delves into the “agrafa”, the “unwritten” or “uncharted” parts of a Greek adoption phenomenon and Greek–American relations that may, however, still be accessed via archival investigations, mixed research methods, and efforts to hone life writing skills. At stake is the case of the post-WWII adoptions of some 4000 Greek children who were sent to the United States between the years 1950 and 1975. This study asks how the related negotiations were transacted, especially in the early years of the intercountry adoption phenomenon. It challenges the researcher today to create a life writing narrative out of scant snippets and dense allusions and to disclose the dynamics of overlooked interactions, such as the consumerist and occasionally racist attitudes of some, though certainly not all, prospective adoptive parents. Thus, this article highlights formerly dismissed interactions, not necessarily numerically representative interactions, given that the window of opportunity has passed to interview adoptive parents of Greek children who pursued these foreign adoptions in the 1950s–1960s and to quantify their actions and reactions more systematically. Many of the adoptive parents of the 1950s–1960s, however, left their impressions, demands, and frustrations in writing. Those writings have yet to be studied, and their more deliberate, explicit language must be acknowledged, even amid generally more positive depictions of postwar intercountry adoption. I show that the victorious post-WWII era saw a sense of American entitlement emerge among the prospective adoptive parents that has since been whitewashed. Waiving the banner of altruism or humanitarianism (as a couple or as a superpower, respectively), some adoptive parents embarked on adoptions from Greece from a position of cultural as well as political and economic superiority. Their expectation was that the “destitute” partner should comply, that the Greeks themselves should not “talk back” when “poor orphans” were about to be “saved” from “illegitimacy” and lack of prospects. Full article

Approximately 3600 Korean children have been adopted to Australia, as of 2023. Existing studies have tended to approach transnational or intercountry adoption from child development, social welfare, or identity perspectives. Research on Korean adoption to Australia is relatively scarce. The current article approaches the population from a migration perspective, building on Richard Weil’s conceptualization of transnational adoption as “quiet migration.” Drawing on both Korean-language data from South Korean governments and Australian data, the authors analyse Korean adoption to Australia as a state-sanctioned transnational migratory mechanism that facilitated the orderly movement of children from so-called “deficient” families of predominantly single mothers in South Korea to adoptive families in Australia. Situating adoption practices within the socio-political contexts and larger migration trends of both countries, the authors identify multiple enabling factors for channelling the ‘quiet’ flow of Korean children for adoption and argue the very ‘quietness’ of the adoption system is a source of concern despite Australia’s relatively stringent regulations. A migration perspective and analysis of these enabling factors contributes to the conceptualization of adoption as a socio-political state-sanctioned phenomenon, rather than a solely private family affair. Full article

Although there is growing literature on the situation of international adoption, there is a general paucity of research into the salience of the concept of genealogical bewilderment (GB) and racialised adult adoptees’ experiences of searching for their transnational birth families. This paper seeks to explore the relevance of the much under-studied concept of GB in relation to intercountry adoption. Through a detailed analysis of a documentary film series—Searching for Mum—that serves as an empirical example to develop the concept of GB, this paper utilises four case studies involving adult adoptees to shed light on a number of key concerns, including motivations for genealogy search, belonging, identity, body image/mirror image, and ancestral knowledge. The paper argues that even supposedly well-adjusted adoptees may desire to search for their genealogy and heredity. Moreover, such searches may indicate a quest for belonging and identity in a world where biological ties and processes of racialisation are equated with such phenomena. Full article

Intercountry adoption from Latin America became a sizable, “quiet” migration to the U.S., as evident in its historical evolution from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The recent migration of unaccompanied minors and families traveling with children from these case countries has been characterized by child–family separation, prolonged detention and institutionalization of children, and adoption through various means. This study has been concerned with how both trends became intertwined in the era of globalisation. To address this question, the authors examined intercountry adoption literature and migration-related briefs, legal claims, and news reports. The study suggests that internationally recognized child rights have been violated in the border crisis. Forced family separation resulting from stricter immigration measures has met criteria for child abduction, violating international convention protecting families in transnational kinship and adoption. A child–family separation typology was inferred from individual case studies ranging from separation by death to prolonged or indefinitive separation to de facto adoption. Reunification has failed for migrant children in custody since relatives or kinship members may be undocumented or parents may be deported. The current immigration system for migrant children’s care only prolongs their detention and violates their human and civil rights while turning child abduction into de facto adoption. Full article

Q fever, a zoonotic disease transmitted from animals to humans, is a significant public health problem with a potential for outbreaks to occur. Q fever prevention strategies should incorporate human, animal, and environmental domains. A One Health approach, which engages cross-sectoral collaboration among multiple stakeholders, may be an appropriate framework and has the underlying principles to control Q fever holistically. To assess whether components of One Health for Q fever prevention and control have been applied, a comprehensive literature review was undertaken. We found 16 studies that had practiced or recommended a One Health approach. Seven emerging themes were identified: Human risk assessment, human and animal serology, integrated human–animal surveillance, vaccination for at-risk groups, environmental management, multi-sectoral collaboration, and education and training. Within the multi-sectoral theme, we identified five subthemes: Policy and practice guidelines, information sharing and intelligence exchange, risk communication, joint intervention, and evaluation. One Health practices varied between studies possibly due to differences in intercountry policy, practice, and feasibility. However, the key issue of the need for multi-sectoral collaboration was highlighted across most of the studies. Further research is warranted to explore the barriers and opportunities of adopting a One Health approach in Q fever prevention and control. Full article

In contrast to the historical ‘blank slate’ approach to adoption, current policy places significant emphasis on providing children with knowledge; family history; biological connections; stories, a genealogy upon which to establish an authentic identity. The imperative for this complex, and often incomplete, genealogy is also explicit within the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption established in 1993 to ensure that intercountry adopted children will be provided with a genealogical ‘heritage’. Yet, despite the recurring dominance of this approach, ‘heritage’ remains an ambiguous dictum which holds the expectation that adopted children should have access to any available birth/first family information and acquire cultural competence about an often distant and removed birth country. Providing such heritage becomes the responsibility of intercountry adoptive parents. It is therefore unsurprising that this role has become part of how intercountry adoptive parents perform and display their parenting and family practices before and after adoption (Richards 2014a; 2018). Such family work is explicit in the stories that parents and children coconstruct about birth family, abandonment, China, and the rights of adopted children to belong first and foremost to a birth country. Using qualitative data provided by a social worker, eleven girls aged between five and twelve, and their parents, this article explores the role and changing significance of narratives as familial strategies for delivering such heritage obligations. Outlined in this discussion is the compulsion to provide a genealogical heritage by adoptive parents which can ultimately be resisted by their daughters as they seek alternative and changing narratives through which to construct their belongings and identities. Full article