This document discusses the history of Korean transnational adoption and its effects. It begins with a quote from a Korean adoptee expressing feelings of not being recognized in the Asian American story. It then outlines the key events leading to the dispersal of Korean children after World War 2 and the Korean War, including the sexual exploitation of Korean women. It provides adoption statistics by country. It discusses how transnational adoption has disrupted adoptees' narratives and identities, and perpetuated colonial ideologies. It notes how adoptees are healing by reclaiming their narratives, and calls for more awareness of unethical adoption practices still occurring today.

1. Korean Transnational Adoption –
A brief history, its effects and
implications
Juli Simenson
Historical Trauma and Healing

2. “I…want to rid our world of hyphenated
and competing identities…I feel myself
confined by the term ‘Asian American’
because I feel as if my story is still not a
readily recognized piece of that Asian
American story…I am SCREAMING out
loud in hopes that someone will hear me
and we can collaborate together and find
new words and new ways.”
- Rebecca J. Kinney, Korean-American
adoptee, Asian America

3. Events leading to dispersal
• Japanese Occupation 1910 – 1945
o Genocide
• Divided after Japanese rule ended into two
countries by the 38th parallel - 1948
o South Korea – The United States
o North Korea – Soviet Union

4. Korean War
• 1950 – 1953
• By the end, 215 institutions housed 24,945
children
• 10,000 children of mixed ethnicities had been
abandoned for numerous reasons
• No established infrastructure or social welfare
system existed

5. “As always in times of war, women fall to the lot of
conquerors, and the Korean War did not turn out to
be an exception to this rule. Not surprisingly, a
sexual exploitation of Korean women took place on a
mass scale during the war.” – Tobias Hübinette,
Korean Adoption History

6. Korean adoption
• 1954 – the exportation of Korean babies
began in earnest
• 1961 – Orphan Adoption Special Law and The
Child Welfare Act
– Established legal framework for the speediest
adoption process known at the time
• Adoption flourished

7. Statistics of placements
• United States 1953 – 2013
– 114,665
• France 1953 – 2004
– 11,090
• Sweden 1953 – 2004
– 8,953
• Denmark 1965 – 2004
– 8,571
• Norway 1955 – 2004
– 6,080

8. How is this historical trauma?
• Disruption of narrative
• Transnational adoption is an exploitive
practice
• Perpetuates the underlying colonial ideology
that is the adhesive of transnational
adoption

9. Matters of Identity
• Absence of language and culture
• No emotional connection to birth relatives
• Assimilation through “white washing”
– Parents who cannot and do not fully
understand the experiences of their child’s
racial group
• Confusion about personal identity
• Not seen as “Korean” in the eyes of native
Koreans

10. Connecting and Organizing

11. How are KADs healing?
• By taking control of their own narratives
– Film, poetry, music, literature

12. Where do you stand?
• Build awareness about where unethical
practices of adoption may be occurring
• If you want to be an adoptive parent,
consider adopting domestically or fostering
children in the US
• As social workers, what role are we to take?

13. Why is this important?
• This is still happening
– China, Ethiopia, Russia, Guatemala
• A matter of human rights and dignity
– “Best interests” of the children involved are often
dismissed
• Invisibility of the mental health issues
– Depression, anxiety, suicide