Between Restavek and Relocation: Children and Communities in Transnational Adoption

"Girl with kite and dog" (1917) by Ethel M'Clellan Plummer (1888-1936). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-89024.

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Introduction

The January 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti created a child welfare emergency of the first order. Prior to that natural disaster, tens of thousands of Haitian children lived on the streets in desperate need; the earthquake dramatically worsened the situation for these children and many others. With the nation's infrastructure in tatters and the provision of aid delayed, pictures of needy, frightened and injured children saturated the international media.

Moved by these stories and photographs, droves of well-meaning people came forward to express their willingness to adopt orphaned children, just as they had following the 2004 Indonesian tsunami. In response, governmental agencies and international aid organizations serving children issued clear directives emphasizing the need to move cautiously to insure the reunification of children and families where possible. Scandal erupted, however, when a group of U.S. citizens acting under the aegis of a newly created non-profit organization, the New Life Children's Refuge, were apprehended moving thirty-three children across the border to an alleged orphanage in the Dominican Republic.² As that story unfolded, disturbing facts came to light: the children were, in fact, not orphans; the group's leader, Laura Silsby, had been experiencing financial difficulties and thus may have been as interested in the monetary rewards associated with placing children as in providing adoptive homes; and one of the group's putative legal advisors, Jorge Puello, was already under investigation in connection with sex trafficking charges in El Salvador.³

The story of the New Life Children's Refuge was not the only one to feed concerns about corruption and coercion in the international adoption arena. Just days after the earthquake, Governor James Rendell of Pennsylvania obtained permission to airlift fifty-two supposed orphans from Haiti under a U.S. State Department directive authorizing expedited procedures for transferring children whose adoptions had been in process prior to the quake. But twelve of the children who arrived in Pennsylvania had not been subject to adoption proceedings prior to the earthquake; indeed, shortly after their arrival, it became clear that they may not have been orphans, had no adoptive families waiting, and had been removed from Haiti without proper clearance. Admitting that he was uncertain whether authorization to remove the children had been secured before seeking permission to retrieve the children, Governor Rendell said, "[I]f you had seen the faces of those children as we loaded them onto the airplane, you wouldn't have asked a lot of questions, either."⁴

The stories emerging from Haiti underscore problems that have long swirled around the practice of transnational adoption (TNA). Today, between thirty and forty thousand children per year are adopted transnationally in the West, typically half of those into families in the U.S.⁵ This global transfer of children from poor families in the developing world to wealthier families in the West generates bitter disputes. Advocates of transnational adoption argue that providing stable, loving homes for children is a humane response to global dislocation and poverty. After all, they argue, the number of children placed through transnational adoption is vanishingly small compared to the number of children who lack parental care across the globe, and providing even a few children with families who love and care for them is a compelling justification.⁶ Opponents label the practice a virulent new form of imperialism that drapes the exploitation of children, families and communities in the soothing imagery of a United Colors of Benetton fashion shoot. The practice, they argue, commodifies children and amplifies race, class and gender inequalities on a global scale.⁷

This essay seeks to steer a middle ground: properly regulated, transnational adoption may be one part of a solution to the problem of children without parents. At the same time, there are a number of creative community based solutions which, with their "institutional" overtones, are often unfairly discounted in the clamor over...