• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.695-711
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• 2007

Research on intercountry adoption was strongly needed in Korea; however, there were only a few research in geography on the United States. It is hard to find the geographical research on Korea-born adoptees in Europe. This research analyzed spatial distribution of Korea-born adoptees in Europe where adopted the largest number of Koreans after the United States. Since 1956 when Korea-born children were first adopted in Norway, the number of adoptees had increased rapidly until 1978. In the early 1970s, Korean children had adopted more in Europe than the Unites States. Even though the number of intercountry adoptees temporarily decreased after the Seoul Olympic in 1988, Korean children have been still adopted at a settled numbers. In the beginning period (1956$\sim$70) of adoption in Europe, the Korean war orphans and abandoned children were adopted by Sweden, Norway and Belgium. In the second period (1971$\sim$90), the number of Korean adoptees were social orphans as a result of rapid industrialization. The number of adoptees increased rapidly and their destination extended into ten countries including the Western Europe such as France, Germany, Italy and United Kingdom. In the third period after 1991, the adoptees were mainly from unmarried mothers. The number of adoptees decreased as the result of that the Korean government attempted to reduce the intercountry adoption and to increase the domestic adoption. Their destination reduced into Northern European countries, France and Luxemburg. Those countries kept adopting settled number of Korean children. Female Korean adoptees used to outnumber male Korean adoptees; however the sex ratio was reversed recently. The age of adoptees became to lower, so most of Korea-born adoptees were under one-year old.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.369-393
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• 2010

This study examines the factors influencing Korean international adoptee's search for their birthparents. Considering that the search for birthparents is general needs for adoptees, Korean government should support their searching activities and, first of all, understand their characteristics. The research model was constructed based on the results of previous studies, and the data set of conducted by ministry of health and welfare was reanalyzed for this study. The subjects of the survey were Korean-born adoptees (who are more than 16 years old) in North America, Europe, and Australia. The research questionnaire was translated to English and French, and the survey was conducted on line. A total of 290 questionnaires were included in the analysis. Since survey was conducted on line, the missing rate of the data was relatively high. So, multiply imputed five data sets were used for analysis. Among the variables included in research model, the age group of adoptees, experience of identity crisis in their life, the first time when they became actively interested in Korean roots, the age at the time of adoption, and the attitudes of adoptive parents toward their search were significantly related to their search for birthparents. Adoptees in the age group of 30~34 had more actively participated in search compared to their reference group (which is the age group of more than 35 years old). The earlier they became actively interested in Korean roots, they tended to be more active in searching activities. Also, the experience of identity crisis in life and the age at the time of adoption were positively related to their search. Although most of adoptive parents have supported their search, the adoptees who reported that they didn't know their adoptive parents' attitude toward search, or their parents deceased had more actively participated in search for their birthparents. Some implications for adoption policy and practice were discussed based on the results of the study.