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I'm not sure about this. Many will adopt a child from China, India, and Africa. None of these kids would visually blend into a White American family portrait. Nevertheless, these kids are desired.
Sure, there will always be people who don't care about the child's ethnicity. But there are those who do. Those are among the people adopting from Russia and Romania.
1. These American kids are considered by many as sub-humans. Maybe they have different perception of foreign kids - e.g. poor countries, not poor genes.
2. It's a multi-billion dollar business. And like any other business, it tries to attract clients. US adoptions cost from $0. Agency fees for foreign adoptions - $10,000+.
3. Some adopters hope that foreign kids will be greatful that they saved them from death or suffering.
But the story they all tell falls to:
1. They want to save those kids. Makes no sense in case of Russia, where orphans are way better off than in US.
2. It takes too long to adopt domestically. But statistically it takes half the time. Russia is (was) especially bad.
If you wait as long as it takes to adopt from Russia, and spend the same crazy amount ($50,000+), you'll be able to find a perfectly healthy blue-eyed-blonde-girl-infant/toddler (a stereotype of the most demanded child) orphan (no bio parents) in US.
In Russia you can't possibly legally adopt such child - domestic demand is huge. Illegally... alas, happened all the time... But healthy infants costed dearly lately.
I'll explain the "better off" part, to avoid a sarcastic remark that could follow.
1. In orphanages (and US has them too - no matter that they are called differently) conditions are at least similar. Maybe Russian are even better - decent state financing, plus lots of private support. Rooms, food, schooling, sports, toys, entertainment - all decent. It is possible to find a bad one in Russia (today this means - crowded), but in US you can (at least could) find an orphanage that is a strip bar at night, with drugs and pedo rapes...
2. Family foster care is statistically way worse in US. Abuse and rapes are simply extreme there.
3. Kids leaving foster care and orphanages in Russia are guaranteed housing and free rides at any university (they compete for admission with each other, before the general pool).
Housing may be temporary, but the state has to provide them with free apartments. And it does, just not always quickly - in the best places the wait time is 1-2 years, while in the worst - 10+ years. Feds have recently decided to help local governments to fix the wait time problem.
To become homeless they have to sell a flat, and spend the money.
In US 40-50% become homeless. Nobody receives $150,000+ flats. College... what college?
Financial support (for a few years) in both countries is similarly small.
The number of kids without parents is about the same in both countries. Just like the share of kids in foster families (in Russia many of them are actually adopted - just not formally) and orphanages. Just like the share of "special" kids. Racial compositions are different, of course. Still, there are a lot of white kids in US. Closed adoption from a different state - and you don't have to worry about bio parents.
Other than formally adopting, most Russians adopt kids through foster care. Generally without being paid a salary - only a couple hundred bucks that the state provides on food. Curiously, many people don't take those money, either because they are lazy (you need to go somewhere with a bunch of papers to start receive payments) or because they think that it looks like they are paid for adopting (as if there's something wrong with it).
The huge plus in adopting this way is that the child retains all benefits - including a free flat, and a special uni admission. But care should be taken to avoid a child becoming a (co)owner of a housing (above a certain minimal footage) - some people didn't, and are desperately suing the state.
Same number of children without parents in both countries?
Well, let's see here - 740,000 in Russia ( total population approximately 140 million)
400,000 in the USA ( population approximately 300,000 million)
..and the rest what you are writing here - I call it BS ( a lot of B.S.)
Just to prove it - I'll re-post here something from another thread on the same subject from Russian wikipedia;
"Secondary orphancy - is a social phenomena in modern Russia, that's brought by refusal of adoptive parents from their adopted children. Secondary orphancy deeply traumatize children and causes moral and psychological degradation. When they find themselves abandoned second time in life, children lose whatever trust they've had their for adults; they feel disappointed in family institution, they experience problems with emotional attachment to people close to them.
The number of children returned to orphanages is skyrocketing; it already achieved few thousands annually. According to official statistics there were 6136 of such cases in 2007, in 2008 - 7834 cases, in 2009 - 8474 cases. Practically all cases took place in Russian families. For example in 2009 there were 8473 children returned by Russian families, only one child has been returned to orphanage after foreign adoption. At that the number of people willing to take children from orphanages for adoption was dwindling down every year; there were 129, 561 in 2007, 113,751 in 2008 and 90, 639 in 2009.
The chairman of State Duma committee on family, women and children Yelena Mizulina stated that such spike in numbers of returned children is considered by specialists as humanitarian catastrophe.
The majority of children are returned by decision of people who initially took them from the orphanages. For example in 2008 64 % of children (5057 from 7834) were returned according to the initiative of their adoptive parents and guardians. 78% of returned children (6114 из 7834) lived in families that were reimbursed financially for their upbringing. (4946 children from paid legal guardianship, 931 children from adoptive families, 237 from foster families.)[
As experts are saying, the theme of secondary orpahncy is often hushed, because of the trumpeted state-organized campaign of mass adoption.
Pavel Astakhov, the Children's Rights Commissioner for the President of the Russian Federation, announced in February 2012 that "the majority children's homes and boarding-schools in Russia will be closed withing the next 5-8 years and children will be moved to adoptive families.
The commercial nature of placement of children into families brought to what the chairman of State Duma committee on family, women and children Yelena Mizulina referred to as following; "Children are taken into families with the purpose of financial gains, and once those gains are received, children are easily returned back to orphanages.
As a result of it, the problem of orphancy is not is not resolved and the number of orphans is growing.
As a rule, adoptive parents prefer to take younger children of pre-school age. When these children reach the teen years and the adoptive parents start experiencing difficulties with them, they often rescind the agreement and return children to orphanages. However the chances for teenagers to find new parents are already very slim."
You can read the rest here, instead of spreading Putin's propaganda please.
You know this forum has a similar topic already, where I asked the same question . If you take the statistics, 70 percent of children in Russia are adopted Russian families and 30 percent foreigners. Meanwhile so Nemenov every year more and more parents want to adopt a child, regardless for expensive cost of living in Russia.
70 % as in what?
There are 120,000 children in Russia eligible for adoption and there are currently only 18,000 families that expressed interest in adoption.
Interesting information you provide. But where are you getting your information reference this;
"It is possible to find a bad one in Russia (today this means - crowded), but in US you can (at least could) find an orphanage that is a strip bar at night, with drugs and pedo rapes...". I've yet to hear of an "orphanage" in the USA that is a strip bar at night.
What do you mean "you've yet to hear?"
Putin's propaganda machine is working hard, and so should you.
PS. I'm definitely not a big fan of the USA, but in all honestly the latest trend of Putinstan ( I don't even call it "Russia," because there is more to Russia than just Putin and his cronies) irritates the **** out of me.
And this trend is - to call white black, black - white and to convince everyone that corrupt Putin's society is no different than the West. They'll come up with thousands examples ( as twisted as they can be,) pass them for a fact (as deceiving as they can be) because - hey, no one can go and check the BS because West is too far and impoverished Russians simply don't live long enough to tell it all.
Many Americans prefer foreign kids because they stupidly believe the child to be somewhat superior to an American baby. My wife and I adopted a healthy American baby (at birth). The entire process cost approx $25,000 and lasted 8 months from start to birth. When discussing adoption with other parents or would-be parents, they always ask where we adopted our son. When we say, "the US," people are astonished. Some have even asked why we chose the US. What a stupid question! I also think that many "parents" choose foreign adoption because it's cachet. Brangelina do it...as well as other celebrities; so, foreign adoption somehow feeds the ego and lends the perception of exclusivity. Enough with all of the PC-BS. These parents want a child that everyone will instantly know is adopted based upon the child's race or appearance because "progressive" people will instantly admire the parents and assume that they are "good" people. All of the Wiki and other statistics are used to highlight specific agendas; none of these statistics are trustworthy without seeing the math behind them. Many American parents want to look progressive within their social circles, so they adopt internationally. There is absolutely no way that adopting from Africa, Europe, or Asia is quicker and cheaper than adopting from Virginia, NY, or any other US state. I've seen parents who are unwilling to adopt an American, but will only adopt a Chinese newborn. If their desire to adopt was based solely on being the best parent to an innocent child, then these people would not mandate such superficial requirements. The same applies to whomever requires a "Russian, female infant with sky-blue eyes." Enough with excuses and bull****...if these people at least admitted their intent behind adopting internationally versus spewing PC-garbage, I'd at least respect their honesty.
Last edited by sterling2012; 06-09-2013 at 04:03 AM..
Reason: gramma
I had a couple friends who tried to adopt an American-born child; it sucked up most of their money for two years, and they still weren't able to adopt. He is an illustrator for comics and children's books, she's a kindergarten teacher... doesn't get much more solid than that for child-rearing, but they got rejected on the grounds that they "didn't lead a healthy lifestyle" - she was chubby and had type 1 diabetes. Nevermind that they live 3 blocks from the beach in Venice, in a nice, airy apartment... they eat all organic/non-GMO healthy foods... no, not a healthy environment for a kid at all.
After that, they ended up adopting a little girl from China, because the process was easier.
Most unwed mothers in the USA keep their children, there are various support programs to help them do so. That leaves fewer children available to adopt.
The remaining children available in adoption agencies may have any number of disorders - mental, physical, behavioral. They tend to be older than orphans in other parts of the world, and have lived with "foster" families before. So they have difficulty bonding with the adopting family after bouncing through the system, and living temporarily with fosters.
Healthy children tend to come via "open adoption" here, where the birth mother remains known to the child and may have visitation rights. It's a complication some adoptive parents don't want to handle. It's much simpler for the birth parents to be on the other side of the ocean.
Adoption agencies in the US can be very particular and fussy about the parents they have screened, because of the imbalance of parents to adoptees. It can literally take years for a couple to get through the system to find a child.
Plus age restriction. They do put age restriction on adoptive parents in the US, where in Russia for example they do not.
I'm not sure about this. Many will adopt a child from China, India, and Africa. None of these kids would visually blend into a White American family portrait. Nevertheless, these kids are desired.
There are a fair number of kids in foster care in the US, or in some other form of being "available" for adoption, but most of those are not babies, they are a bit older. Most people adopting want a baby- as in a newborn- and so they go overseas because there are more newborns available for adoption.
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