Do Other Countries Besides U.S. Do as much international Adoption?

MamaKate

Hi, LC!

IA does happen in other countries. The US imports far more children than any other county and is the most vocal about it. Oddly, the US does not keep available records of the number of children adopted OUT of the US every year. The top two importers of US children are Canada and Germany.

Here are two places that have decent stats on IA broken down by country:

http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/FactOverview/international.html
http://www.aican.org/statistics.php

monkeykitty83

Yep. People also adopt internationally in Canada, The UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Spain, the Scandinavian countries... definitely not just the US. However because these countries have smaller populations, the sheer number of children is lower.

Interestingly, in many of these countries, children are sometimes adopted internationally FROM foster care in the United States. This is particularly minority children, who make up the largest percentage of US foster kids, and have a harder time finding adoptive homes than Caucasian children do. Kind of ironic.

icehockeymom7

Canada, European countries, and Australia adopt many children internationally.

Randy B

I know of plenty of international adoptions done by Canadians. I'm not sure how the ratio of domestic and international adoptions, per capita, in Canada stacks up to the same figures as the US though. The only reference I could find for Canada states that there are about 2000 international adoptions done each year. Further clarification in another document shows that in 2007 there were 1713 children adopted internationally in Canada (Guatemala doesn't even show up on this list).

Add to that about 1700 children each year adopted domestically through foster care or similar programs. I've been unable to find stats for all other types of adoptions in Canada (private adoption, family adoptions, kinship care and similar programs).

I would put to you that other countries do these types of adoptions however since this board seems to be dominated by Americans (its a fact of numbers, NOT a slam of any sort) then that is why you hear about US rules, stats and situations more then others.

Roberta P

From my personal experience Sweden, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Australian, Netherlands, and Canada all adopt alot via IA. You probably just don't know enough IA families and this is why you don't hear about it.

emma

I can't speak to specific numbers, but when my husband and I were in-country to adopt, we were outnumbered by the families of other nationalities that were there to adopt. Because the country requires a stay of about 4-8 weeks, there are a couple of hotels that specialize in adoption (you receive lodging and meals). In our hotel, there were two families from the United States, three families from France and two from Spain.

When we spoke to our in-country social worker, she said that she saw primarily families from France and Spain and to a slightly lesser degree from the United States, but that she had seen families from most parts of the world. She said that adopting within the country was not common, but it was becoming more popular for people who were born in the country and had emigrated to do international adoptions.

As for why, I don't know specifically. One of the French couples that we were particularly close to said that they (like us) had an affinity for the country. I'm not sure if they had more specific reasons, but from what she said, international adoption is quite common in Paris.

Independ"ant"

No not "as much". People in other countries are content with not having children and/or are not waiting until they are infertile unlike Northamericans. I also believe they are less religious so they don't take the word of church to the grave like the bible thumpers do here (Savior complex isn't praised and is seen for what it really is).

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