Adoption changing the face of America

Every year about 130,000 adoptions take place in the US. A growing number of these - up to 40% - place kids with parents whose race is different.

For children who come from other countries, the number is higher, around 84% are tranracial or transethnic. This is according to Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a nonprofit research, policy and education organization. He revealed the latest information at the Council on Contemporary Families, a nonprofit group of family researchers, mental health practitioners, and clinicians.

“When you form a family with kids of a different race or ethnicity, you become a multiracial, multiethnic family,” said Pertman.

Most adoptions come from foster care, 68%. Infant adoption inside the US is 17% and international adoption totals 15%.

“The whole gamut of family issues is being influenced in a profound way by adoption,” says Pertman. “There are Chinese cultural festivals in synagogues and African-American kids with Irish last names at St. Patrick’s Day parades.”

Pertman recently revised his book, Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming Our Families - and America. “An immense amount has changed in the last decade - intercountry adoption is plummeting, foster care adoptions are soaring, a kid was ‘returned’ to Russia, the Haiti earthquake was an object lesson in how not to do adoptions, openness in infant adoptions really took hold, and on and on,” explained Pertman.

Source: USA Today