International adoption is adoption in which a person or couple becomes the legal parents of a child not born to them and is from another country. The formalities for international adoption can be different depending on the country where the child was born and now lives in. Most countries require prospective adoptive parents to first get approval to adopt, in some the approval can only be given afterward. Often an “orphan” is a child whose living birth family has consented to an adoption. Some describe orphanages as “nurseries” or “children’s homes” because many of the children’s parents have not consented to an adoption of their children.
It is not uncommon for a parent to put a child in a nursery temporarily while they deal with poverty or work. Orphanages are charitable organizations where poor parents can keep children when they do not have the means to provide for them, or they want their children to avail themselves of educational opportunities that they cannot provide.
International adoption is quite different from trans-cultural or interracial adoption. However, the fact is that a family will often become a trans-cultural or interracial family upon the adoption of a child internationally. The necessity of adoption in the world is amazing. At present, there are millions of orphans all over the world waiting to be adopted.
International Adoption
The laws of countries are not the same for allowing international adoptions. Some countries have relatively well-established rules and procedures for international adoptions, while other countries do not allow it.
Some countries, which include many African nations, have extended residency requirements for adoptive parents that, in effect, rule out most international adoptions. Unfair treatment of children adopted internationally often results in a harmful impact on the children involved. Children must be given rights to be raised in a safe, healthy environment by their adopted parents.
Potential parents of international adoptees must have the biological parents consent to the adoption. Bureaucracy is usually blamed for the slow process it takes for a potential parent to obtain a child, but often, what is to blame is that the demand for children exceeds the supply. It is argued that international adoption is now more about finding children for parents than finding homes for children.
Susan Bissell, also of UNICEF, said that she is not against international adoption, but believes that it is better for discarded children to be taken back by their real families and advises governments to provide some financial incentives to families who are willing to do so.
