South Korea has the world’s oldest international adoption program. More than 200,000 children have been adopted from Korea since the mid 1950s, and Lifelink has been blessed since 1984 to assist in the placement of more than 2,000 South Korean children. Where Korea once placed the largest number of adoptive children in the United States, Korea is now the 4th largest placing country following China, Russia and Guatemala. Although Korea placed as many as 2,620 children annually in the U.S. during the early 1990s, only 1,376 children were placed in the United States during 2006. In 2007, for the first time ever, more Korean children were placed domestically (57.3% placed within Korea) than internationally (47.7% placed outside of Korea). The reason for this decline is the South Korean government’s new policy which focuses on increasing adoptions domestically and decreasing the need to place children internationally. In addition to the four international adoption agencies in Korea, there are now 25 agencies handling domestic adoptions only. Domestic adoptive families and birth mothers now also receive financial support from the Korean government to care for their children. This new Korean policy also requires healthy Korean infants to be placed on a registry for five months to allow time for Korean families to adopt these children before their being made available for international adoption.
With this new Korean government policy, all U.S. agencies prepared for a significant decline in referrals to their agencies, and instead were surprised that this decline was minimal! Even though there was a significant increase in domestic adoptions, there were still more children needing to be placed than domestic families available to adopt them. Korean adoptive applicants were also looking to adopt the healthiest of infants, and some couples were not comfortable with children who have even minor medical concerns or family history concerns. The birth mothers who were now being offered minimal financial assistance if they choose to parent discovered that this assistance was not enough to live on and support a child, and that there was still a stigma for a child born out of wedlock.
After the new five month registry requirement was met, Lifelink started receiving referrals again from our partner agency, Eastern Social Welfare Society. In 2007, Lifelink received 35 referrals, a decline of only nine percent from the previous year. Of these referrals, 65% were male and 35% were female. Since Koreans are more likely to adopt females, we are likely to continue to see a decrease in female referrals from Korea.
Lifelink requires a family without children in the home to be open to a child of either gender. If a family has a child they may request a child of the opposite gender. For families who adopted from Lifelink in 2007, most of these families requesting male referrals received a referral in less than nine months from application. These timelines will increase as more families apply to this program.
The positives of this program are that children are in foster homes prior to adoption and receive regular medical check ups at Eastern’s on-sight medical clinic. Children are usually around five months old at referral and approximately 11 months at arrival. Families can travel to bring their child home or have their child escorted. Families only need to stay in country four to five days. Please view our website at www.lifelinkadoption.org for other specific requirements of this program.
With the increasing waiting timelines for China and other country programs, Korea is still a wonderful program for families who qualify.
Rachel Young and baby Logan at his recent homecoming The
Young family with staff from Eastern Social Welfare
from Korea.
Services.
Dr. Kim, Jin Sook and Mrs. Kim, Tae Ok with ESWS President Dr. Kim, Jin Sook,
Lifelink Chairman
Lifelink's International Adoption Staff in Bensenville
Christine Tani, and ESWS Post Placement Director
Mrs. Kim, Tae Ok.