1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« This essay addresses these issues through a case study of intercountry family adoptions in Québec. It explores why some sending countries more than others favor this type of adoption and documents the age and sex distribution of adoptees. » (p. 119)

Questions/Hypothèses:
« What happens in the globalized world of transnational adoptions when adoptees and their adoptive parents are not strangers, but are related before the transfer of the child, usually to one adoptive parent through consanguinity and to the other through marriage? Which countries or cultures favor this type of adoption? How are these requests processed by various legal channels? Who is involved in deciding and organizing the transfer of the child within the same immediate or extended family? Ultimately, how is kinship being legally reformulated? » (p. 119)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
- Données provenant du Secrétariat à l’adoption internationale du Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, Gouvernement du Québec
- Données documentaires diverses

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique
Réflexion critique

3. Résumé

« The applicants who make the most use of transnational family adoptions come from cultures with a strong emphasis on blood ties that favor fosterage and the circulation of children on a large scale, especially in times of crisis. The age range of the children involved in family adoptions is much wider than in non-family adoptions. While it is generally assumed that biological parents, or even biological mothers alone, make the decision to relinquish children of adoption, in fact a whole network of kin is involved in family adoptions. What these relatives or governments agents consider in the ‘best interest’ of the child is culturally determined. Officials in receiving countries can impose their own values when approving family adoptions, even if the right to decide on the adoptability of a child is the legal purview of the country of origin. Research is needed to evaluate how children fare and hear their side of the story. » (p. 131)