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Case # K83-3518
Korean Adoptees Allowed Dual Citizenship
According to The Korea Herald, the Korean Government is now allowing Korean adoptees access to dual citizenship. Details haven’t really been released regarding when this will take a effect and what steps one would have to take to start the process, but it’s still excellent news.
The one sobering question I had at first was whether dual citizens would be required to carry out military duty. But I’ve heard unofficially that there may be some sort of military service substitute for Korean adoptees. Who knows what will happen, but I’ll be sure to keep you all up to date when more information comes out.
Congratulations to GOAL for pushing hard for this. They have been working very hard on this.
GS
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More duel citizenships eyed in 2009
The Justice Ministry said yesterday it will allow more dual citizenships in an effort to draw foreign investors and “exceptional talent” in various areas such as the arts and science.
In its new policy report to President Lee Myung-bak, the ministry said it plans to lower the minimum requirement for foreign investors to get dual citizenships starting in 2009.
It will also allow limited dual nationality for those who show exceptional talent in the arts, science and other fields.
Those who have been given foreign nationality due to involuntary circumstances, such as adoption or birth abroad, will also be allowed dual nationality, the ministry said.
Justice Minister Kim Kyung-han put forward a plan to reduce the number of human rights violation cases in law enforcement and to take strong measures against those who unjustly accuse lawful processes of being suppressive.
“We will lead the way in building an advanced state by providing a firm and just legal culture,” he said.
The ministry is to revise the bankruptcy law to offer repayment rights to corporations with higher possibilities of revival when they take a loan for working funds.
The trust law will also be revised to allow conversion of trust properties into securities, in order to prevent bankruptcies caused by temporary lack of liquidity.
The Ministry of Government Legislation and the Anti-corruption and Civil Rights Commission also gave new policy briefings to the president.
The Legislation Ministry said it will shorten the usual 120-day legislative period to less than 30 days to speed up legislation of bills needed to help revive the economy and support the livelihoods of the poor.
The civil rights commission reported that all civil petition centers will be unified in order to collect all the opinions of the people.
By Bae Hyun-jung
(tellme@heraldm.com)
Holt Names New CEO
Just saw this tidbit about Holt’s new CEO, Kim Brown who is a Korean Adoptee. Apparently he was the first KAD to serve as Board Chair. The new Board Chair, Will Dantzler, is also a Korean Adoptee.
Holt International Children’s Services Names New CEO
Eugene, OR— The board of directors of Holt International announced today that Kim Brown has been elected to the position of Holt Chief Executive Officer effective immediately. Mr. Brown has served on the Holt board since 1999 and was the first adoptee selected as board chair.
During its annual board meeting, the board also elected Will Dantzler of Manassas, VA as the organization’s new chair. Dantzler, who is also a Korean adoptee, expressed his gratitude to the organization that was responsible for finding him a family. “Serving as a member of the board, and now as the board chair, is an honor as well as an opportunity to ‘give back’ to this amazing organization. I join the rest of the board in looking forward to Kim Brown as Holt’s new CEO.”
Dantzler stated, “These are challenging times for international adoption. The board unanimously believes that Kim is uniquely positioned to lead Holt during this critical time of uncertainty in the global economy and worldwide changes for intercountry adoption and child welfare.”
Brown has an extensive background in business and organizational management. In addition to his personal experience as a Korean adoptee, Kim and his wife, Lori, are the parents of two children whom they adopted from Korea. “I have come full circle, both as a Korean adoptee and as an adoptive parent. In addition to the business and management experience I need for this job, I have the personal life changing experience of adoption as well.”
Korean Adoptee Shares Experiences Meeting Foster Mother
Hi all, I just thought I would forward a few youtube videos along to all of you. I was looking at a few new films by Eric Byler, and well-known Asian American filmmaker and stumbled upon these videos of adoptee Stephanie Drenka. In one video she describes meeting her foster mother, and finding out information about her birth father. Pretty moving stuff, and it’s courageous of her to put her thoughts out to the world. Take a look-GS
Stephanie’s Blog —> CLICK HERE
Doongji KAD Services
Hi all – Here’s some information about an organization that I have mentioned in the past. It’s called Doongji and means “nest” in Korean. It’s an org that supports KADs both visit Korea and attempt to track down birth parents. I can’t personally vouch for it since I haven’t used it, but I do think it’s a great service they provide and you should look into it if you’re interested in both visiting Korean and conducting a birth search. GS
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My name is John Kim and I work for agency call Doongji.
Doongji ( meaning a “nest” in Korean ) is an association of people to give a little support to our brothers and sisters who were adopted abroad, so they can visit their mother country.
About couple of month ago, one of our participants from France visited our agency asking for help to find his birth parents and got the chance to meet his birth mother. Doongji still keeps a good relationship with both participant and his mother through translating their exchanging letters. And again, this participant is coming to see his mother next month and Doongji also will be there for them. Like this story, Doongji knows the importance of keeping a good relationship with every participants who have visited our agency.
If anyone of you or your friends have interested in visiting Korea or finding birth parents, please contact us. Doongji will try our best to support your needs including airport pick-up and finding homestays. We won’t charge you anything for these services. For more information, please visit our website at www.nestkorea.com or contact us by e-mail nestkorea@hotmail.com
Thank you.
Sincerely yours,
John gun-young Kim
Doongji (NestKorea)
“Unearthing the roots of adoption”
Thanks to K@W for this article. I really don’t like the way they describe individuals from Transracial Abductees. They say “A small but vociferous group argues that all international adoption should be abolished. They exchange rants on websites such as
Transracialabductees.org, calling the process a “racist system of forced assimilation and brainwashing.”
It pisses me off that the article takes an ethical or moral judgment into the way they portray those who identify with the folks from Transracial Abductees. They devalidate the validity of their arguments by labelling them as “online rants.” And they attempt to fanaticize the legitimate argument that transracial adoption can be a racist institution with colonial linkages.
G.S.
Unearthing the roots of adoption
Agencies are retooling their support programs as a generation of
Asian adoptees seeks to reclaim their neglected heritage
ADRIANA BARTON
From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail
July 31, 2007 at 9:23 AM EDT
Vancouver — Jennifer Jin Brower was born in South Korea, but until a
few years ago, she had never used chopsticks or heard of kimchee.
Because she looks Asian, strangers ask, “Where are you from? Do you
speak English?” But English is her mother tongue – her adoptive
mother’s tongue.
Ms. Brower, 29, was raised by a Caucasian family in Grand Rapids,
Mich. As a child, she says, “I didn’t think that I was Asian.” But
that didn’t stop other children from mocking her features.
Ms. Brower, who now lives in Seattle, says she didn’t feel confident
in her identity until she spent two months in South Korea last
year. “I finally felt proud to be Asian and Korean because I finally
knew what that meant,” she explains.
The generation of children adopted from Asia in the seventies and
eighties – mostly from South Korea – has come of age. As adults,
thousands are returning to their countries of origin to search for
their birth parents, learn the language and reclaim the heritage they
lost as infants.
Now, some adoption agencies are taking cues from their stories.
Agencies such as Children’s Bridge, based in Ottawa, have started
holding mandatory sessions for new adoptive parents on topics such as
interracial issues and identity. Organizations such as Families with
Children from China, which has chapters in four provinces, run
playgroups and culture camps. They also match adoptive families with
Chinese immigrant families.
Increasingly, adoption agencies are organizing visits to host
countries and other cultural activities for families, according to
Sarah Pedersen, information co-ordinator for the Adoption Council of
Canada. “We are seeing a lot of this going back, reconnecting and
maintaining the cultural identity of the child,” she says.
In Canada, a little more than half of the 4,000 or so children
adopted each year are from other countries, according to the Adoption
Council of Canada.
Speakers at the Children’s Bridge sessions include adult adoptees
originally from South Korea or Vietnam, says Cathy Murphy, director
of adoption services. “They let parents know the challenges they
faced along the way.”
The challenges are significant, judging by the outpouring of films
and writing by international adoptees. Recent works include
documentaries such as Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of
Vietnam, anthologies such as Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial
Adoption and online publications including Inthirdspace.net.
Adoptees have also founded organizations such as the International
Adoptee Congress, KoRoot – a guesthouse in Seoul for returning
adoptees – and Adoptee Solidarity Korea, which is lobbying for the
end of intercountry adoption out of South Korea.
A small but vociferous group argues that all international adoption
should be abolished. They exchange rants on websites such as
Transracialabductees.org, calling the process a “racist system of
forced assimilation and brainwashing.”
The experiences of today’s adult international adoptees are distinct
from those of voluntary immigrants and domestic adoptees, according
to Richard Lee, an associate professor of psychology at the
University of Minnesota who studies how Korean adoptees form their
identities.
“They were raised at a time when parents were encouraged to take a
more colour-blind approach,” he says, “which meant ignoring race.”
But society treats Asians as a racial minority, Dr. Lee says. For
some adoptees, “that came as a shock,” he says, “because they were
not always aware of their minority status as children.”
Nevertheless, most international adoptees grow up to be well-adjusted
adults, he adds.
Some become advocates for international adoption. Leah Buchholz, a 24-
year-old Korean adoptee, was raised by a German-Canadian family in
Vancouver. As an adoption advocate, Ms. Buchholz says, she encourages
parents to accept children’s curiosity about their birth parents and
preadoption lives.
Language lessons, homeland visits and culturally diverse schools can
all help give children a sense of their heritage, according to Ms.
Murphy of Children’s Bridge, who is the mother of two international
adoptees in their teens.
“Going to Chinese New Year once a year – that’s not enough,” Ms.
Murphy says. But parents should offer, and not insist on, cultural
activities, she adds.
Programs such as these can go a long way toward building a child’s
positive sense of ethnic identity, according to Dr. Lee.
Ms. Buchholz, who visited South Korea briefly as a teenager, says she
is eager to know more about her culture. She may search for her
Korean parents some day, she adds, but would “never abandon my
adoptive family and go back to my birth parents.”
For Ms. Buchholz, it’s easy to relate to other Korean
adoptees. “There are these key elements in our lives that we don’t
have to justify or explain,” she says. “That’s a great source of
comfort, it really is.”
Celebrity adopters
International adoption has never been so in vogue. Check out the
glamorous media coverage of Angelina Jolie’s multihued brood,
Madonna’s Malawian boy and Meg Ryan’s little girl from China.
But the hype is offensive to some international adoptees.
“A lot of us aren’t very happy with how trendy it is to have a child
of colour,” says Jennifer Jin Brower, 29, who was adopted from South
Korea. “It’s like we’re a fad, like getting a new purse.”
Today’s celebrities are hardly the first to start international
families, though.
Mia Farrow began adopting children from countries such as India,
Vietnam and South Korea in the seventies.
Earlier still, the famed sex symbol Josephine Baker started gathering
her “rainbow tribe” of a dozen children in 1954. She even bought a
French chateau in which to raise the pan-ethnic crew she called “an
experiment in brotherhood.”
The debt-ridden Ms. Baker was evicted from the chateau in 1969.
Fortunately, Princess Grace of Monaco gave her a villa so Ms. Baker
could keep her United Nations family together.
Adriana Barton
Finding the missing link
For adult adoptees, finding birth parents in Asia is a huge
challenge, since most adoption agencies guard their records closely.
Jennifer Jin Brower of Seattle tried to locate her birth parents in
South Korea last year. She had her DNA tested and appeared on reality
television shows and in the press to publicize her search, but to no
avail. The experience made her feel “very vulnerable,” she
says, “because I was in a foreign country and barely knew the
language.”
Others have had more luck. Mihee-Nathalie Lemoine, a Korean adoptee
based in Montreal, succeeded in finding her birth mother in 1991.
Although she hasn’t kept in touch with her – “I think I remind her of
the bad,” she says – Ms. Lemoine developed a relationship with her
biological grandmother and lived in South Korea for 13 years.
While there, Ms. Lemoine co-founded Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link,
an organization that helps others find their birth families and
adjust to living and working in the country. Returning adoptees
needn’t feel alone, she says.
Adriana Barton
My home and native land
Top 10 countries for international adoption in Canada by number of
adoptees. About 2,000 children are adopted from other countries each
year; the rate has been relatively stable for the past decade.
2003 2004 2005
U. S. 74 79 102
UKRAINE 23 16 39
RUSSIA 92 106 88
SOUTH KOREA 73 97 97
CHINA 1,112 1,001 973
TAIWAN 26 15 30
PHILIPPINES 58 62 70
INDIA 10 37 41
ETHIOPIA 14 34 31
HAITI 150 159 115
SOURCE: ADOPTION COUNCIL OF CANADA
Korean adoptees from abroad and birth mothers protest
Thanks to the K@W listserv. More to come on Dandelions. G.S.
(Yonhap Feature) Korean adoptees from abroad and birth mothers protest
overseas adoption
By Kim Young-gyo
SEOUL, Aug. 5 (Yonhap) – Roh Myung-ja has gotten together with her son
every year since 2004, when she was reunited with him after giving him
up for adoption about 30 years ago. She is one of thousands of Korean
women whose children were adopted overseas.
The 49-year-old Roh believes what she has experienced in the years
before her son returned to her should not happen to anyone. Now, she
works as a staff member of Mindeulae, (Dandelions), a civic group of
South Korean parents whose children were adopted overseas and who oppose
the nation’s adoption system, which sends thousands of orphaned and
abandoned children abroad.
“We hope that no other mothers have to go through the pain and
suffering that we went through. Overseas adoption leaves deep-rooted
scars both on the birth mothers and the children,” Roh said in an
interview with Yonhap News Agency on Saturday.
About 30 Korean adoptees from abroad and 10 birth mothers, including
Roh, came together Saturday for a rally in downtown Seoul calling for
the government to abolish international adoption from South Korea. The
mothers and adoptees were not all related to each other.
They held up picket signs that read, “Real Choices for Korean Women
and Children,””Korean Babies Not for Export” and “End Overseas
Adoption.”
A signature-gathering drive also began to express opposition to overseas
adoption. The civic group plans to collect one million signatures
nationwide.
Government figures show that there have been about 87,500 domestic
adoptions, versus 158,000 international adoptions, since the end of the
Korean War in 1953.
In 1977, Roh had to give up her 11-month old child, and had no idea
that her son had gone to the United States.
“I was literally shocked when I got a phone call in 2004 saying that
my son is coming from the U.S. to look for me,” Roh said.
Roh said that no one asks or is responsible for what happens to the
children after they were adopted overseas.
“My son luckily turned out fine. But who knows what other kids
undergo?” she said. “The day when I took my son shopping for the first
time, he said to me, ‘This is my first time in my life that I went
shopping without caring that I am not white,'”
Roh’s son, who was not able to make a trip this week to Seoul from South
Dakota, wholeheartedly supports her actions, she said.
Jaeran Kim was one of the adoptees from overseas who joined in
Saturday’s protest. A social worker focusing on domestic adoption in the
U.S., Kim was adopted from South Korea by a U.S. family in 1971.
“When people talk about the adoption, they don’t care about how the
child grows up or how it affects the birth mothers,” she said. “The
adoption system is too much dominated by the adoptive families and the
adoptive agencies.”
Kim stressed that she did not have negative experience as a Korean
adoptee in the U.S. and is in a good relationship with her adoptive
parents.
“It is not a matter of whether you had a good experience or bad
experience as an adoptee. The adoption system goes way beyond that. It
works within a political, institutional structure of society,” she said.
Kim, who was on her third visit to South Korea, has not been able to
find her birth parents yet, but plans to live in South Korea with her
husband and children for a while in the future.
“Adoption does not only affect me as an adoptee, but it also affects
my family — my husband and children. My children do not have their
grandparents in South Korea, and they lost their part of the Korea
culture, too,” she said.
She argued that a child should be adopted by the extended family or
extended community at least, and that international adoption should be
the last option.
South Korea, the world’s 11th-largest economy, was the fourth country
in 2004 following China, Russia and Guatemala to send the most children
to the U.S. for adoption, according to a research paper by Peter Selman,
a British scholar.
International Conference on Adoption Studies
Just saw this on the K@W listserv and thought you’d all be interested to see the interest generated by IKAA. It’s an emerging academic field in the U.S. and apparently internationally as well. It’s good to see others are noticing. G.S.
First academic conference on internationally adopted Koreans held in
Seoul
About 700 internationally adopted Koreans gathered Tuesday for an
academic conference aimed at discussing legal, social and cultural
matters and other various personal issues facing many adoptees, Yonhap
News Agency reported.
The First International Korean Adoptions Studies Research Symposium,
which runs for six days, is the first academic symposium on Koreans
adopted abroad, according to the organizer, the International Korean
Adoptee Association (IKAA).
A dozen international experts on the issue also took part in the
conference held at Seoul’s Dongguk University.
Other experts attending the gathering included Peter Salman from
Britain; Eleana Kim and Jean Kim, both from the U.S.; and Tobias
Hubinette from Sweden. Some of them, including Hubinette, are Koreans
who were adopted abroad when they were children.
Adoptees and Birth Family Geneology
As a heavy consumer of NPR radio programming, I heard a segment a week ago on the show “On Point with Tom Ashbrook.” The segment topic was on this idea that genetics and technology have evolved so much that now many individuals may get tested for particular genetic diseases to see whether or not they will get it in their lifetime. This one woman called in discussing how she got tested for a degenerative disease and found out that she would get the disease somewhere in her 30s, (she is in her mid 20s). The implications not only for herself are large since this means that her family, especially her mother could potentially develop the disease as well. But of course her mother didn’t want to know whether or not she would develop the disease, but the daughter got tested anyways. It brings up all sorts of questions, the most obvious one being “If I am to get a degenerative disease in my lifetime, would I want to know for sure?” And there are other questions like “would I change my lifestyle if I found out I would be getting the disease?”
All very interesting questions, none of which I can concretely answer for myself…and that’s when it hit me. I have no medical history of my birth family. I hardly even have a clear story about what happened to my birth mother and the reasons she relinquished me for adoption. When I met with a case-worker last summer and a high ranking official within the Holt International Korean office I was under the impression that they may in fact have some contact information available on my birth mother, but may be withholding the information from me. Ok, I understand the reasons behind this, but what scared me a little was, what if I get cancer? What if I need a bone marrow transplant and I need to search for my Korean birth family for potential matches. Is it within Holt’s jurisdiction to bypass the privacy of my birth parents to get in contact with them? Or would I be left to slowly develop cancer without any thought as to whether my birth family could help me? I asked the Holt official, and to my dismay he informed me that Holt would try their best to get in touch with them. What the hell?!?! “try your best?!?!” Sometimes I wonder who’s rights are more respected within this “adoption triad,” the birth family or the adoptee. I mean technically the agency’s mission is to serve the welfare of the children, and again I understand the political ramifications behind keeping birth parents identities anonymous, but should I get cancer (or any other TRA KAD for that matter), isn’t it within our “welfare” to be in contact with our birth parents to see if they would be potential bone marrow matches?
Looking for Unnaturalized Korean Adoptees
Hi everyone,
I’m currently working on a project to start the first national Asian American radio program here at the Institute for Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
One particular radio module segment we’re looking to develop centers around the issues of unnaturalized Asian/Korean adoptees. We are also looking at peripheral issues that will include those adoptees who potentially face being deported for their criminal records. If you know anyone who specializes in these sort of cases, experts who know more about the subset of Asian/Korean adoptees who are unnaturalized, or you yourself are an unnaturalized adoptee who might be interested being interviewed for the program, please leave me a comment to this post.
Thanks for your help.
Gang Shik
Opportunity for KAD Voices To Be Heard By The Korean Government!
Hello all. I was presented with a rare opporunity by a member of the Holt International Board in the U.S. She, like so many of us, is a transracial Korean Adoptee.
She recently sent me an email asking for suggestions on what we as TRA KADs would like the Korean Government to be aware of. I’ll include a tidbit of the email she sent to me without including her name or position within Holt.
“I was wondering if I
could get your opinions on what you, as adoptees,
would like from the Korean government. Our group is
trying to get a sort of ‘wish list’ together for the
Ministry of Health and Welfare of Korea, per their
request. This would include anything from current
adoption laws/policies to post adoption laws/policies.
An example: Allow Korean Americans/Korean Adoptees to
adopt under Korean requirements and not have it count
into the quota-have it count as a “Korean Adoption”.”
————–
I can’t even stress how much of an opportunity this is for us as the adoptee community to voice our concerns to the Korean Government. I know that there is only so much that they are willing to consider, but I think it’s great that they are willing to open up dialogues with KADs to address issues that we feel strongly about. If you have any concerns that you would like to be voiced, please leave a comment to this post and I’ll make sure a large email of concerns goes out to Holt and is forwarded to the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Thanks so much!
Gang Shik/Nate
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