International adoption

International adoption (also referred to as intercountry adoption or transnational adoption) is a type of adoption in which an individual or couple becomes the legal and permanent parent(s) of a child who is a national of a different country. In general, prospective adoptive parents must meet the legal adoption requirements of their country of residence and those of the country whose nationality the child holds.

International adoption is not the same thing as transcultural or interracial adoption. However, the fact is that a family will often become a transcultural or interracial family upon the adoption of a child internationally.

The laws of countries vary in their willingness to allow international adoptions. Some countries, such as China and South Korea, have relatively well-established rules and procedures for international adoptions, while other countries expressly forbid it. Some countries, notably many African nations, have extended residency requirements for adoptive parents that in effect rule out most international adoptions.

The requirements necessary to begin the process of international adoption can vary depending on the country of the adoptive parent(s). For example, while most countries require prospective adoptive parents to first get approval to adopt, in some the approval can only be given afterwards. Often an "orphan" is a child whose living birth family has consented to an adoption. Some describe orphanages as "nurseries" or "children's homes" because many of the children's parents have not consented to an adoption of their children. It is not uncommon for a parent to put a child in a nursery temporarily while they deal with poverty or work. Orphanages are considered charities where impoverished parents can place children if they cannot afford to feed them, pay for child care, or want to take advantage of the educational opportunities in the orphanage. Because the institutions often provide education, they function more like subsidized boarding school.

Prospective parents of international adoptees wait to get a referral for a child, which often means waiting until one of these parents of the children in nurseries consents to the adoption. Bureaucracy is often blamed for the slow process it takes for a prospective parent to get a child, but often what is to blame is that the demand for children in the third world exceeds the supply. A senior advisor on child protection with UNICEF, Alexandria Yuster, argues that international adoption is now more about finding children for first world parents than finding homes for children.Susan Bissell, also of UNICEF, said that she does not oppose international adoption, but believes that it is preferable for abandoned children to be taken back by their previous families and advises governments to provide small monetary incentives to families who are willing to do so.

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