Worldwide, approximately 50,000 children are adopted each year. Most children are adopted from abroad. If the child is adopted by Dutch people and brought to the Netherlands, it is called intercountry adoption. However, it also happens that a child is adopted from their own country.
What are the sending and receiving countries?
In general, Third and Second World countries give up the most children. The country that gave up the most children in 2004 is China. In total, China has given up 11,230 children. This is 25% of the total number of children given up around the world. Russia is number two with 7,664 children relinquished, 17% of the total. Next come Guatemala with 2,673 (6%) children and South Korea with 2,306 (5%) children. Furthermore, Ukraine, Colombia, India, Haiti, Bulgaria, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, Belarus, Thailand, Romania and the Philippines are also high on this list. Together they cover 15% of all sending countries.
The First World countries naturally adopt the most children. These countries have a good economy and enough money to support a child. The country that adopted the most children in 2004 was the United States. The United States adopted more than 50% of the total number of 44,491 children. This was followed by Spain with 5,541 children, 12% of the total, and France with 4,079 children, 9% of the total. Other countries that adopted children included Italy (7%), Canada (4%), the Netherlands (3%), Sweden (2%) and Norway (2%). The other countries, such as Germany and the United Kingdom, adopted 1% or less of the total.
Most children put up for adoption come from China. A major problem in China is overpopulation. It even got so bad that the government decided that a woman could only have one child. It is therefore true that the boys are more important than the girls. The girls are often put up for adoption.
The other children mainly come from poorer countries. The mothers have no money to care for their child and then put their child up for adoption , to give the child a good or better life. The parents do not have enough money. The chance of a good job for the child is also low, because there is almost no education. The child would then have to live in poverty.
What are the pros and cons of adoption?
Intercountry adoption has many advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages are that the child gets a chance for a better future. For example, the child does not have to live in poverty and can build a good life. The underprivileged children also get the chance to live in a loving family. The possibility of becoming parents without pregnancy is also an advantage. Parents can also choose whether they want to adopt a boy or girl. If people cannot adopt a child themselves, they can still have an adopted child.
The disadvantages of adoption are that it is possible that attachment benefits can arise, where the adopted child has problems bonding with the adoptive parents. The cultural difference can also pose a major problem . For example, a child feels like a Dutch person even though he or she comes from China. It therefore has nothing to do with the culture of China. Discrimination can also be common. The children may be bullied because they don’t look like their adoptive parents. The costs for adoption are also very high, ranging from 7,000 to 16,000 per child. There are also long waiting times for adopting a child. The procedures take a very long time.
How does adoption work?
If parents want to adopt a child, there is a lot of work involved. First, the parents must request permission from the Adoption Services Foundation. Parents will only receive this permission if they meet a number of conditions, namely:
- The question of whether the parents are married. Not only married people are allowed to adopt a child, cohabiting couples and single parents are also allowed to adopt a child. A joint application for adoption can only be applied for by married people, provided they are of the same sex.
- Age. The parents who want to adopt a child must not be older than 41 years old at that time.
- The health status of the expectant parents.
If the parents meet these conditions, they will be admitted to the adoption procedure. They are then prospective adoptive parents. As a prospective adoptive parent, they must attend six meetings of the Adoption Services Foundation. These are preparatory meetings where parents receive information about topics that are important in the adoptive families.
If the previous application has been approved, a family investigation will take place by the Child Protection Board. This research consists of four conversations and examines whether the future adoptive family offers a stable and safe living environment for the adopted child.
The Child Protection Council will advise the Ministry of Justice based on the results of this investigation. The Ministry of Justice will then ultimately decide whether the prospective adoptive parents will receive permission in principle, which means that the Ministry of Justice has no objection to adoption. This is valid for four years and can be extended for another four years.
After this, the prospective adoptive parents enter the mediation phase. A permit holder, an organization that has been granted a permit by the Ministry of Justice to supervise adoptions, searches for the most suitable parents for a child who is eligible for adoption. Once the permit holder has found the right parents for the child, the prospective adoptive parents and the child are officially introduced to each other. The prospective adoptive parents then have time to consider whether they want to adopt the child.
If the prospective adoptive parents have decided to adopt the child, it will be checked again whether the parents meet all the conditions and all papers will be checked again. Only then can the prospective adoptive parents pick up the child and bring it to the Netherlands permanently. Upon return to the Netherlands, the adoptive parents must go to the immigration police to register the child.
Children adopted from a country that is party to the Hague Adoption Convention are immediately Dutch nationals, because the foreign adoption decision is automatically recognized. For children adopted from countries that are not affiliated with the Hague Adoption Convention, only a temporary residence permit can be issued and these children are therefore not immediately Dutch citizens.