All posts filed under: news

Adoption and Child Separation at the Border

January 13, 2019
by mike m
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news

Never forget the young children taken from their asylum-seeking parents and flown across the country.  Where are they now?  This article is more important than ever because they have slipped from our thoughts amidst the mounting ruckus of the current political craziness. Did Kimberly McKee’s words come to pass?  Still in the making? We are seeing the beginnings of how organizations transform black and brown children to desirable bodies for adoption. http://www.thelostdaughters.com/2018/06/adoption-and-child-separation-at-border.html  

After joining Team Korea, adoptees stick around for birth search

March 10, 2018
by mike m
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news

Adoptees who represented Korea in Olympics are sticking around to search for their birth families.  Marissa Brandt named honorary ambassador for post-adoption services.  Jackie Kling’s statements show a lot of patience and maturity about others’ perspectives. Still, hoping that search support becomes more robust, and more rights are given to adoptees.  Participating in the Olympics shouldn’t be one of the main springboards to a search. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/olympics-over-korean-american-adoptee-athletes-focus-search-birth-families-n854471

New support for adoptees deported to Korea

February 1, 2018
by mike m
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news

KAS announced official financial, housing, language, and other support for adoptees deported back to Korea. It is a necessary bandaid on a crappy situation, so this is good news. At least one government is taking steps to doing the right thing, though there is a long way to go. https://www.kadoption.or.kr/en/board/board_view.jsp?bcode=41_7&no=86  

How many adoptees deported?

January 31, 2018
by mike m
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Adoption Museum Project reports 25  international adoptees deported. First time i have seen any kind of statistic on this anywhere, and i am filled with rage.  Even State Department had no idea. At least one has died, and I hope the rest are surviving well. The Adoption Museum Project has produced great #infographics on Adoptee Citizen status in the USA. Very useful to… https://t.co/FZg02WIGRw — AFFCNY (@AFFCNY) January 22, 2018

Korean statistics estimate over 14,000 adoptees in US without citizenship

October 15, 2017
by mike m
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As reported in Korea Times: Of 111,148 ethnic Koreans legally adopted into American families, 14,189, or 12.8 percent, have failed to obtain American citizenship and are left vulnerable to deportation, said Rep. Shim Jae-kwon of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). As someone else recently said, adoption without citizenship is human trafficking.  Leaving adoptees hanging in the wind due to the failures of those who adopted, oversaw, and administered it is a crime against humanity. […]

RIP, Phillip Clay

June 1, 2017
by mike m
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commentary / news

It is always shocking when a KAD commits suicide, and we feel the loss keenly.  When that person had been deported because of shameful policies that continue to exist in the US – as befell Phillip – it feels like a knife in our back.  All that might be beautiful about adoption is rendered ugly in that light, and the words family, country, and belonging reduced to empty marketing slogans. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2017/05/119_229975.html Even in death, our identity is […]

Is Marissa Brandt the first adoptee to compete representing Korea?

April 29, 2017
by mike m
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news

A couple other adoptees are hoping to represent Korea in the 2020 summer Olympics, but are there any before Marissa Brandt?  She is already competing on the national team and is expected to be in the Olympics. Brandt, 24, was adopted by a family in Minnesota when she was four months old… and now finds herself playing for South Korea less than one year from the PyeongChang Winter Olympics here. She hopes to find her birth […]

“Adoption services” shouldn’t overlook adoptees!

January 2, 2017
by mike m
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commentary / news

The sentiment in the title seems so obvious, yet this insightful reflection on intercountry adoption policy in Australia tells a familiar, sad story told around the world: millions spent and lots of focus on new adoptions, nothing spent on existing adoptees. Overall by 2019, the Australian government will have spent $33.6m yet to date, not one cent has been spent on providing services for existing adult intercountry adoptees who’s numbers are far greater than the […]