https://priceonomics.com/why-did-international-adoption-suddenly-end/ This goes hand in hand with Americans delaying formation of families and fertility rates turning negative. Overseas Adoptions by Americans Continue to Decline Admittedly, one part of the reason adoptions are down is because in 2012 Russia and Guatemala chose to temporarily halt adoptions to the U.S. and the standard of living in China has been improving. But that can't explain all of the decrease. Another minor contributory reason could be that white Christian America—the demographic most likely to adopt—hasn't been doing so well in recent years. This 2018 article says that U.S. international adoptions are down 81% (since 2004) and projected to completely end by 2022. https://adoption.com/how-to-solve-the-us-international-adoption-crisis The reason the U.S. has adopted so many children from other parts of the world is because it has traditionally been a wealthy country. What does it mean when international adoptions from other parts of the world completely come to an end?
Moving story about a Chinese girl adopted by American parents: https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post...ese-girl-adopted-american-family-miraculously
Another possible contributing factor why international adoptions experienced a slump: Christians tried to do good and adopt orphans from Third World countries. Well it turned out in a huge number of these cases the children weren't really orphans at all. They were sent away due to poverty, often with the family giving them up thinking the children would eventually return. But the adoption agencies in these Third World countries misled both the family giving up their children and the family adopting them. These adoptions carried big commissions, with people paying $30,000 to $40,000 to adopt these children, a huge amount of money in poor Third World countries. Now many of these families have had to take a plane trip back to the countries where the children were taken from to find the child's parents and return them. https://newrepublic.com/article/127311/trouble-christian-adoption-movement
For a while, adopting a foreign child was a 'thing' for those who could afford it. The costs, however, have risen drastically, and many are looking more locally, regardless of skin color or nationality. Also, people in general are having smaller families. What was the norm 50 years ago, has been cut in half. Many factors in the game. https://www.adoptioncouncil.org/publications/2017/02/adoption-by-the-numbers
Time was when people had enough that they felt they could share their standard of living with other people, other causes, other needs. As our standard of living crashes, we naturally shrink back from such generosity.
Just in case the picture stops working at some point in the future, the graph (shown in the first post) shows international adoptions to the USA peaking at 23,000 in 2005, dipping below 20,000 in 2007, a very steep decline from 2008 to 2009, in 2009 it was 12,500, and reaching about 6,500 in 2014, continuing to slowly further decline from there. Why Did International Adoption Suddenly End? (priceonomics.com) , data comes from U.S. State Department Intercountry Adoption Statistics The decline has continued. In 2019, there were 2,971 international adoptions to the United States. In 2020, there were only 1,622. Although no doubt that may have been in large part due to the coronavirus pandemic which began in January 2020, with an associated economic and travel shutdown. 2015 - 5,648 2016 - 5,370 2017 - 4,714 2018 - 4,059 2019 - 2,971
This seems more an indication of the decline of a fad, rather than an economic indicator. A few years ago African kids were the big thing, everyone wanted one. The fad has wavered so few people, other than virtue seeking evangelicals, are really interested in the international child stealing market. That has nothing to do with the economy.
I doubt it has anything to do with the economy. The biggest source of white babies (Russia) closed shop, and as someone mentioned, the cost has skyrocketed. Now it costs about $40 000 to buy one from places like Bulgaria.
No doubt that was a major factor, but if that were the major reason then we would have expected the adoption numbers to fall off very suddenly in the statistics, not continue to gradually decline year after year, over 16 years, like they have.
I had a co-worker adopt from Russia about 25 years ago (not cheap), as it was easier than adopting from the USA maybe that problem has been addressed, and it's easier now to adopt in the USA it should not be so hard to adopt, anyone can have a kid naturally, in fact the right wants to force bad potential parents to have kids
I think part of this may be that there are more children from poor families within the US available to adopt, than there used to be. The ratio of poor women giving birth to middle class families wanting to adopt has shifted. (And this despite Planned Parenthood trying their darndest to keep those numbers down, which should really tell us something) No one wants to recognize this but probably a large part of the story here is the change in racial demographics in the US. White families are the ones most likely to adopt statistically, even after adjusting for income level. I hate to say it, and I hope my words here will not be misconstrued, but it is kind of like the Third World, that America used to adopt from, has since moved in within its borders. Some of those adoptions may still be happening, but they are just no longer international. That could be one perspective to view this.
It begun in 1950s and peaked in 2004, so its not exactly a fad. The number dropped because there are less kids available for adoption.
I think it's rather the reverse. There are more kids available for adoption. Those kids are now within the borders of the country. Not as big of a need to search outside your borders when there is now more availability within your borders.
To some extent you may be right, but the international adoption rate to the US hasn't been this low since the 1970s.
It begun during the Korean war, so if 60 year trend is a fad to you then so be it. Then they would not be international adoptions. Maybe its good people adopt from US as opposed to other countries.
I still don't think you understand. The adoption rates have not gone up in the US. There are just more poor people, more kids available for adoption.
No, we dont have more poor people, and maybe people are not willing to adopt kids who were bornaddicted to drugs.
This seems like a desperate attempt to argue the economy is bad. I am a millennial and most of my generation is delaying having children, forgoing children, or having smaller family. The reason is because the cost of living is so high, and many of us have a lot of college debt. The cost of having a child in the United States medical system is also outrageous. The medical bills for a family is also crazy.
Some are. I know a midwife, but, again, it should a woman’s choice, not a decision made out of economic hardship and lack of options. Thinking about thousands of women who can’t afford hospital births turning to home births especially if Roe is overturned is an awful thought.
