Korea Eases Way for Foreign Adoption, but End Nears

Many of the first Korean children adopted in the United States in the 1950s were the children of American soldiers who fought in the Korean War.

Stigmatized at home by illegitimacy and their mixed race, the children had no place in the family-oriented culture.

Later, rapid Westernization brought some modern problems to South Korea--divorce, out-of-wedlock births and a weakening of the extended family, according to Susan Freivalds, executive director of Adoptive Families of America.

“It continues to be very much to the detriment of the child in Korea to not be born to a married couple,” Freivalds said. “These are the children who need adoptive homes.”

The South Korean government decided that adoption, even outside the country, was better for the children than orphanages or foster care, she said.

The government established a single set of regulations governing all adoptions. Four Korean agencies are authorized to place children outside the country. Each works with no more than one agency in each American state.

The result is a system that allows Americans to adopt without traveling to Korea. It is also a predictable system with virtually no room for the corruption reported in other countries’ adoption markets.

“Families weren’t getting frustrated trying to do it, and there was a counterpart agency in this country to help you do it,” said Suzanne D’Aversa, a social worker at Parsons Child and Family Center in Albany.

The number of adoptions from Korea grew from a handful in the 1950s to 6,188 in 1988. In that year, the Seoul Olympics brought international attention to everything Korean, including adoption.

“That was the first time that the Korean people realized that there were more Korean kids being adopted than from all other countries combined,” Freivalds said.

The government began trying to place more children inside the country. Its announced goal is to end foreign adoptions this decade. In 1992 only 1,787 Korean children were adopted by Americans, according to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.