The Role of Race and Other Factors in Shaping Parents’ Decisions to Adopt Abroad

• In Event: 106 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session I
  In Refereed Roundtable: A. Table 13. Family in Global Context

Abstract

As transnational adoption grows, many American children await adoption in the U.S. Since many of these children are children of color (and often black), we ask: What role does race play in parents’ decisions to adopt abroad rather than adopt domestically? In-depth interviews with 41 parents reveal parents adopt abroad for many reasons, many of which have little to do with race. However, we find that we cannot overlook the role of race in shaping their decisions to adopt abroad: though some parents were open to children of any race and several actively sought non-white children, many had limits – they did not want to adopt African American children. We look at how parents articulate the role of race in their decisions, and the implications for domestic adoption and broader race relations in the United States.

Authors

• Nikki Khanna, University of Vermont

• Caitlin Killian, Drew University