History of Korean Adoption (2021)
Still frames for an animated short about the history of international Korean adoption.
Project Lead & Content Developer: Leah Nichols
Collaborator: Kimberly Youngsun
"There is dissonance between Korea trying to reduce its international adoptions/increase domestic adoptions while the high demand for babies meant agencies, now a for-profit, lucrative business model, processed babies with little regard for their identities, which resulted in systemic switching and concealed identities. Those adoptees who were switched today have no access to their real birth records."
"Korea’s rapid industrialization meant population control for Koreans but a supply of babies for elsewhere."
"The perceived success of Korean adoptions led to the development of other adoption programs with the U.S. as the largest receiving country. China takes over as the top sending country, over S Korea."
"Adopted Korean kids were given exceptional status ... this permitted them into the country before the U.S. Congress had lifted quotas restricting Asian migration to the U.S."