matching tracksuits

The other evening, discussion turned to adoption and the supposed population shortage in Europe. The Polish government recently passed a bill that would give families a monetary reward (“aid” was probably the preferred choice of words) for having kids. Kinga answered my protests about unnecessarily adding to the world’s population by saying that she wasn’t sure whether it was a reward for giving birth to a child, or merely having another child (i.e., adoption).

It seems though, that given the number of homeless, neglected children in the world, that there would be a massive effort -- in the name of relief at the very least -- to get these children adopted.

But what a thorny issue that is, for both the adopter and adoptee.

Most of these kids are in Asia, raising cultural concerns. It’s not just that there don’t seem to be many people willing to adopt kids who don’t look like them. There’s also a question of the child’s culture. If I were to adopt an Indian child, I would want him to have some sense of his heritage – language, food, customs.

There are plenty of studies underway regarding some of the issues raised by adoption. The Transracial Adoption Study “attempts to examine the types of cultural socialization strategies used by parents and to evaluate these as factors in the psychological adjustment of the child.”

In recent years, an increasing number of families have adopted children from other countries. However, there is currently limited research on transracial adoption. As such, this study aims to understand the adoptee experience. The Transracial Adoption Study attempts to examine the types of cultural socialization strategies used by parents and to evaluate these as factors in the psychological adjustment of the child. (Source)

Harvard University’s “Study of Language Development in Internationally Adopted Children” is “looking for families who have recently adopted or will soon be adopting 2.5-6 year old children.”

The complexity of language has bewildered scientists for decades. When adults are trying to learn a new language, they struggle for years to become fluent. Yet young children rapidly acquire language with little apparent effort. At the Laboratory for Developmental Studies at Harvard University, we want to find out how children manage to solve this puzzle and why our abilities change as we grow older. (Source)

But the reality is, most people don’t go this route. Adopting.org writes, for example, that it is possible to adopt a Caucasian baby through a public agency: "Public agencies occasionally have some healthy Caucasian infants. It is worthwhile to inquire about them, but there will probably be a long waiting list" (Source). To adopt a Caucasian baby, agencies look for “couples married at least 1 to 3 years, between the ages of 25 and 40, and with stable employment income.”

And yet if you’re willing to adopt non-white children, the situation is a little different:

For children with special needs, some African-American children, and some intercountry adoptions, agencies are willing to consider single applicants, those over age 40, and those with other children. The adoption of American Indian children by non-lndians is strictly limited by the Federal Indian Child Welfare Act.

Why all this talk of adoption? K and I are hoping, at some point, to adopt at least one child. Being adopted myself, I feel that it would border on immorality for me not to return the gift given to me. But it’s disheartening to see so few people in the world looking at this as a viable option. European governments worried about population and demographics could help solve this problem simply by encouraging families to adopt -- say, make the supplement for adopted children higher than for birth children.