Public Submission on Asian Adoptee Needs and Experience to the
White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI) Commission
Submitted by Asian American Adoptees: Margie Andreason, Mari Arneson, Lisa Ellingson, Han G-In Brooke Newmaster, Jon Jee, JaeRan Kim, PhD, MSW, Rachel Koelzer, Heewon Lee, MS, CGC, Kim Park Nelson, PhD, Grace Newton, LMSW, Lindsay Pluger
1 August, 2024
We wish to thank members of the WHIAANHPI Commission (Teresita Batayola, Luisa Blue, Sonal Shah, and KaYing Yang), WHIAANHPI Executive Director Krystal Ka’ai, Deputy Assistant to the President and Asian American and Pacific Islander Senior Liaison Erika Moritsugu, who met with the Asian adoptee community in Minnesota on June 30, 2024. This written statement is our submission of remarks prepared for that meeting.
Background
There have been about half a million people adopted transnationally into the United States, and Asian adoptees constitute about half that number. The largest group of Asian adoptees were born in Korea (~117,000). The second largest group are from mainland China (~97,000). Most Asian adoptees are adopted into white families. Though we are numerically dominated by Korean and Chinese adoptees, Asian adoptees are a diverse group. In addition to Korean and Chinese adoptees, there are over 10,000 Vietnamese adoptees, over 10,000 Indian adoptees, over 7,000 Filipino adoptees, almost 3000 Taiwanese adoptees, over 2000 Thai adoptees, between 700 and 800 adoptees from Hong Kong and a few hundred Japanese adoptees. Our experiences have also been shaped by the time period we arrived in the US: racial and cultural politics and practices as we grew up hugely influenced the way we were seen (or not) as Asian Americans, as well as if and how we have been able to access Asian and/or Asian immigrant communities as Asian Americans.
Asian transnational adoption began after the Korean War in 1953, and South Korea not only initiated the practice of overseas adoption from Asia but has maintained that practice more or less continuously ever since. South Korea’s 71-year history of transnational adoption to the US makes the Korean American adoptee population the largest and, on average, oldest of the Asian adoptee groups in the US. Korean adoption peaked in the mid-1980s, with more than 6000 arrivals per year in 1985 and 1986. Therefore, the oldest Korean adoptees could be in their 80s today. The largest generation of Korean adoptees are now entering middle age, and the youngest could still be infants. The second-largest group, from mainland China, began to arrive in the early 1990s and peaked in 2005 with almost 9000 arriving that year. This group of Chinese adoptees are now entering college and the workforce. The arrival of other Asian adoptee groups from India and Southeast Asia coincided with an intensified interest in overseas adoption since the 1990s, with the exception of groups of Japanese and Hong Kong adoptees who arrived earlier.
Though the Asian adoptee community is very diverse, current adoptee-centered research has reported several shared characteristics of these populations:
- Most Asian adoptees report experiences of anti-Asian racism, and many are not supported in an Asian American community because they have yet to find that community.
- Asian American communities have made efforts to embrace and understand Asian adoptees, but often the cultural differences between us are too great; there are a lot of misunderstandings and missed connections, perhaps because adoptees have already been effectively integrated into white families and are reluctant to be integrated into another cultural formation that may refuse to see us for our own experiences.
- Adoptees of color commonly talk about feeling “in-between” in that they don’t feel accepted by the white communities they were adopted into but also don’t feel they fit into their birth countries or in their constituent Asian American communities because of cultural barriers.
- Unfortunately, in-betweenness is characteristic of policy and services for adoptees. Immigration services have been uneven for adoptees, creating a crisis for those who never attained citizenship. Health services, including mental health services, are also lacking. Finally, recognition in terms of representation tends to be spotty and can be based in problematic stereotypes.
Our in-betweenness is not just self-imposed: adoptees’ needs for information, education and services are so poorly addressed that it is almost as if what is on offer for us is just a series of gaps. From our perspectives as adoptees, including those of us who are educators, we know that most transnationally adopted people have little or no access to their own histories— meaning both our personal histories and the history of adoption from our countries of origin. Though we have stories told by our adoptive families but these may or may not be accurate since much of the misinformation about transnational adoption was created for the benefit of adoptive parents and the adoption industry.
Efforts to meet needs specific to adoptees from the time they are adopted are commonly referred to as “post-adoption services.” In the adoption industry, these services have mostly been focused on supporting families with newly adopted children, but we have a more adoptee-focused and comprehensive vision for what these services could and should be.
“Post-Adoption Services” for Adult Asian American Adoptees
There is a world-wide population of over 200,000 Korean adoptees, most of whom are currently adults. That population of adoptees has formed Korean adoptee networks in every country, including the US, where there is a sizable population of Korean adoptees. The first one was formed in Sweden in 1986. The oldest US-based Korean adoptee organization was established in 1996. These organizations have been started and run by adult adoptees and have provided the programming that we wanted for ourselves rather than what adoptive parents or social workers thought we needed. These Korean adoptee-led organizations have been informally providing services to the Korean and other Asian adoptee communities since that time.
An international consortium of Korean adoptee organizations called the International Korean Adoptee Associations (IKAA) has been holding conferences for the global Korean adoptee community since 2004 and has represented the transnational adoptee community in the Netherlands at the Special Commission of The Hague Adoption Convention (the UN international adoption treaty) four times, in 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2022. And on all but one of those occasions, of the hundreds of participants who were there, we were the only adoptee voice in the room speaking for adoptees, where Lisa Ellingson, representing IKAA, advocated for effective, adoptee-driven post-adoption services.
As noted above, many Asian adoptees experience racial and cultural isolation. In an analysis of census data, scholars Rose Kreider and Elizabeth Raleigh found that unlike interracial families, Asian adoptees were more likely to be raised like White mono-racial families. In fact, the average transnational transracial adopted Asian child lived in counties with less diversity than the average White child with White parents. Although Asian families may live in non-diverse communities, Asian adoptees raised by White parents are likely to have even fewer resources and opportunities for cultural permanency. This often leads to challenges with racial and ethnic identity and can complicate normative identity development. The numbers of Asian transnational adoptions are decreasing, in line with overall transnational adoption. The number of adoptions started to decline around 2004, and since then, children being adopted are much more likely to be older and to have one or more disabilities.
From the “post adoption services” viewpoint, some of what we want to draw focus to here is specific to adoption and adoptees and necessarily excludes everyone else. And it may be for that reason that adoptees seem to have been dealt with typically as a “State Department issue” or a “Health and Human Services issue” instead of through the Children’s Bureau. Asian adoptions are the minority in the US foster care system. The resources and programs for adopted children funded by the Children’s Bureau often leave out transnational adoptees, which means our mental health and well-being are not considered.
However, there is significant overlap between our experiences and needs as adoptees and the experiences and needs of other Asian Americans. For example, we are building community through organizing. We are discussing issues of race. We are trying to understand our family histories and cultures through barriers and from very far away. And, especially now, we are also working with and raising the next generation of Asian Americans impacted by adoption.
Mental Health Needs
Although we recognize that the lack of attention to mental health needs is a problem that extends beyond adoptee communities, we do want to point to some specific gaps we see within our communities. Specifically, we want to highlight findings from two published studies. Reyes et al. (2024) found an alarming rise in suicide among Asian American youth and young adults over the last 20 years, which is consistent with recent statistics from the CDC that show suicide is the leading cause of death for Asian American young people, a fact that is not true of any other racial group. Those of us in the adoptee community know all too well the statistic from a 2013 study by Keyes et al. study that shows adoptees are 4 times more likely to attempt and complete suicide than non-adopted individuals. Thus, Asian American adoptees sit at the crux of two identities that both have heightened risk for suicide.
The Covid-19 pandemic is another example that illustrates the additional vulnerabilities of Asian adoptees within the broader Asian American population. As Asian Americans, many of us experienced a sense of hyper-vigilance or anxiety in public due to the rise of anti-Asian hate and the preponderance of racialized speech about the virus. However, many Asian adoptees did not come home to safe environments at the end of the day in which they were met with empathy. Instead, our parents and relatives often espoused the same racialized rhetoric about Covid and denied the existence of racism all together. As people removed from our original countries and cultures, we often do not have the ability to code switch or the social capital to fit into Asian communities that may otherwise be supportive. Simultaneously, the attacks on Asians during Covid made it clear that we do not enjoy the same safety as our White families, despite having been brought up in them.
The CDC has recently identified racism as a public health crisis. The strongest protective factor that reduces the impacts of racism is community cultural wealth created through strong ties to one’s culture, family, and racial-ethnic community. When transracial adoptees are isolated within white families and communities and excluded from Asian spaces for which we have no natural entrance point, where can we turn but to each other? Transracial adoptees are at risk of experiencing daily racism both externally in the world and within in our adoptive families. This means that Asian transracial adoptees are potentially experiencing racism regularly at every point in our lives as babies, as children, and as adults. We don’t have any mental health treatments to combat racism in adoptive families. In fact, our national adoption laws, including the Multiethnic Placement Act (1994) and the Interethnic Placement Act (1996) legally prevent social workers from talking about race and racism with prospective adoptive families.
Lack of knowledge and understanding of the mental health effects of adoption is often an obstacle to meeting the need for post-adoption mental health support. In order to be effective providers for adoptees, mental health providers need to examine and challenge their own positive and negative assumptions about adoption and develop an understanding of how the ramifications of transracial and international adoption affect adoptees’ lifelong experiences. Adoption-competent social workers should be trained in intervention models that adoptive families and adopted persons can employ. It is important to ensure BSW and MSW curricula provide interventions and training around attachment-based, trauma-informed parenting approaches for children with a history of relationship-based trauma, including abuse, neglect, institutionalization, and/or multiple foster-care placements. Currently, there are not enough BSW and MSW programs that demonstrate this level of preparation. As a result, social workers learn on the job or on their own, meaning problems could arise for adoptees not properly supported with post-adoption resources. Organizations such as the NIH and CDC that provide health support need to open up more funding streams for mental health support, including programs that cover these topics.
It is extremely important for Asian adoptees to be seen within the context of issues and experiences that disproportionately impact Asian Americans; however, it is also urgent to recognize that we are a minority within a minority, with unique challenges that require additional support. One possibility to ensure that the various needs discussed here are addressed is through greater inclusion in existing advisory bodies. We are invisible Asians. Only when we are represented in leadership positions at the national level can we be sure that Asian adoptees are being considered in the decisions that affect us all.
Access to Genetic Testing and Health Equity
The gold standard employed to evaluate risk for cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurological conditions, chromosomal disorders in pregnancy, and rare genetic diseases is family health history. For example, if there is a family history of breast cancer at 45, first-degree relatives can start mammograms at 35. This is vital information. Intercountry adoptees are at a disadvantage from the moment we are adopted due to missing, untranslated, incomplete and false adoption records. This means we do not have full and complete family health histories to help us access preventive screening and treatments. Without this valuable information, adoptees are relegated to being considered at average risk, which means many of us are barred from knowledge of our disease risks, and thus cannot access lifesaving care and treatments until we ourselves become ill.
In collaboration with genetic counselors, adoptees can gain invaluable personal information about their risks through genetic testing. Currently, patients with a family history of more common diseases like cancer and rare disorders like cystic fibrosis can receive genetic testing more readily through insurance. But adoptees and others without family health history generally do not have coverage for these genetic tests and often cannot afford to pay for them out of pocket. Genetic testing can save lives. If a person discovers they have a high-risk cancer variant in the genes BRCA1 or BRCA2, they can begin screening for breast cancer at 30. Contrast this to when the average population should start breast screening: 40-45. Again, genetic testing can save lives.
We encourage the Commission to advocate on behalf of the 500,000 intercountry adoptees here in the U.S. to create a pathway for adoptees to receive genetic testing from trained professionals. We argue that adoptees are an often invisible and underserved population. The Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2022 aimed to reduce health disparities in part by modifying eligibility and other requirements for Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurance. We strongly advocate for adoptees to be added to a new bill, similar to that one, in order to increase equity in health care by improving access to genetic testing and thereby improve the lives of thousands of adoptees.
Citizenship
The authors of this statement are privileged that our parents secured citizenship for us before we turned 18, or that we arrived in the US covered by the Child Citizenship Act (2000) so we could access US citizenship without naturalization, but not all adoptees’ rights and well-being were so protected. Since 1999, we have learned that many transnational adoptees, including Asian transnational adoptees, have been deported or scheduled for deportation because they never became citizens because they are not covered by the Child Citizenship Act and they were not naturalized by their adoptive parents before they reached the age of 18.
One such adoptee, Emily, was adopted from Korea and brought to the United States by her US citizen parents when she was only 3 months old. Her citizenship was not secured before she turned 18, even though her father was an American serviceman who served in World War II. For her entire life, Emily believed she was an American citizen. Now, she’s entering her senior years under ICE surveillance and can’t access her benefits despite paying into them for decades. She and other adoptees who live without citizenship are only growing older, since adoptees born after 1983 are protected by the Child Citizenship Act. The advocacy organization Adoptees For Justice is currently pursuing pathways to relief for adoptees without citizenship. For Emily and other Asian adoptees, this includes pursuing a gubernatorial pardon in their home state. Not only has the lack of citizenship hurt adoptees themselves, but their family members are also sick with worry and desperation at being separated. We are all terrified of what could happen if relief isn’t created for her and other adoptees during this current administration. Although there is no federal documentation of the number of transnational adoptees without citizenship, and therefore no way to know precisely how many in our community are affected by this problem, there is broad support in the Asian adoptee community to close the policy gap that has profound impacts for those adoptees who, through no fault of their own, were never made citizens.
Recognizing the urgency for Emily and adoptees like her, we hope the Commission will uplift the issue of adoptee citizenship to President Biden and encourage him to press Congress to pass the Adoptee Citizenship Act this year, given that this is an issue of keeping American families together, and the bill’s widespread bipartisan support. Furthermore, if President Biden were to voice his support of an inclusive bill to Senator Hirono and Congressman Smith, the bill’s two Democratic lead sponsors, it would go a long way in bolstering their leadership. Additionally, flagging the bill to USCIS and the State Department and asking them to approve the Adoptee Citizenship Act would go a long way in moving the bill forward, because we know their approvals are needed for the Judiciary Committee to move it. An inclusive Adoptee Citizenship Act would be monumental because it would positively impact adoptees and families on a widespread scale. We wish to highlight the creative and painstaking work we and other advocates for our community have taken to provide immigration justice to transnational adoptees, both through legislative advocacy and through individual relief strategies like prosecutorial discretion. Adoptees For Justice is preparing to file 10-15 applications soon. It would be helpful if the Commission or the Domestic Policy Council could ping DHS to remind them to prioritize adoptee cases.
Asian Adoptee Critical Mass and the Arts
It is not by accident that we write to you from the State of Minnesota; this state has become recognized as a homeland of sorts for Korean adoptees where we believe at least 15,000 have been adopted and where Korean adoptees constitute over half of the Korean American population. The large population of Korean adoptees in Minnesota is due to a combination of several factors, including policy, racial politics, culture, access to international adoption agencies and the snowball effect. The concentration of Korean adoptees in the state has supported adoptee-centered resources for transnational adoptees even if they are not of Korean descent. Minnesota currently has at least four transnational adoptee-centered networking and advocacy groups and has become a center for transnational adoptee and adoptee of color cultural and intellectual production.
Because of the large number of Asian adoptees in Minnesota and the historical support for the arts here, there is a concentration of Asian adoptee writers, actors, dancers, and musicians in the state. This means many Asian adoptees in Minnesota were first able to access their identities as Asian adoptees as performers in or audiences of theater, dance or musical performances featuring Asian adoptee artists and/or Asian adoptee stories. One consequence of the large number of Korean adoptees raised in Minnesota is that the state has a high concentration of Korean culture camps for young people. Recently, these camps have been a space where adult Asian adoptees have taken on the role of teaching and mentoring Asian adoptee youth, including in arts instruction. As we have noted in several contexts, Asian adoptees are largely invisible both as Asian Americans in white communities and as adoptees in Asian American communities because of the racial and cultural isolation we tend to experience in our adoptive communities. This means our stories and experiences are often ignored, or worse, expressed as stereotyped tropes that render our experiences to be one-dimensional. Most Asian adoptees also do not have access to our biological familial history either because that information was either lost when we were adopted or refused to us because it is now owned by adoption agencies who do not see us as their clients. Given the absence of broad access within Asian adoptee communities to both our personal and group histories, access to adoptee-centered creative and cultural work is of key importance, especially in the absence of supportive post-adoption services.
We note the Minnesota context not so much to draw attention to the State of Minnesota, but rather to suggest that it is possible for Asian adoptees to be centered and better served in locations where Asian adoptees take agency and are supported by their communities to do so.
Asian Adoptees and Asian America
We assert that transnational Asian adoptees are Asian American, whether or not we are accepted by the broader Asian American community. We live with the common denominators of anti-Asian racism and stereotypes we all face as Asian Americans. Often our stories and experiences are told by others and misrepresent us or follow harmful dominant narratives of adoptees that do not see our full humanity: the “helpless orphan” and perpetual “child that needs to be saved,” or the “troubled and angry adoptee” seen as too damaged to be taken seriously. Unfortunately, harmful attitudes towards us are often shared by non-adopted Asian Americans. In addition, such attitudes can also manifest in Asian Americans who disrespect Asian adoptees for “not being Asian enough.”
The preconceived ideas of Asian adoptees held by Asian Americans and the general lack of interest in learning from adoptees not only invalidates our lived experience but erases our presence as Asian Americans. The understanding of what it means to be Asian American must expand to include Asian adoptees and the complexity of our experiences. Not only should adoptees be included when representing the Asian American community, we should be present at decision-making tables. We also need Asian American leaders to advocate for the inclusion of Asian adoptees when policies will impact us. When it’s not possible for adoptees to be present, we need allies who understand the complexities of our experiences. For instance, it is important that the Asian adoptee experience be part of the Asian American story as represented in the proposed Smithsonian Asian Pacific American museum, and that Asian adoptee subject experts and scholars be central to designing exhibits that represent us.
Our community includes multiple generations of Asian Americans. We have contributed to Asian American history and community in countless ways, including our research, advocacy, art, direct services, and community building. It’s important that adoptees have the agency to speak to our own experiences and help drive policies that impact us. Having adoptee-centered spaces within the Asian American community has been critical in building our voice and power. Adoptee contributions to the Asian American community lift up all Asian Americans. Transnational Asian adoptees are Asian American and deserve to be considered in decisions and policies that impact the Asian American community. Asian Americans often remind the broader public how diverse our community is. Often, adoptees also fight to be seen and included within the Asian American identity. Our ranks include highly skilled and educated advocates who are experts in our community experiences. Every group wants self-determination, and we want that too. It is our hope that we will be successful in being better understood and represented within our larger Asian American communities.