According to the State Department, "foreign" (AKA international or inter-country) adoptions by United States citizens fell by 12% in the past year. The all-time peak in foreign adoptions was 2004 when 22,884 children were brought home by adoptive parents. Last year, only 17,483 foreign adoptions were completed.
Fators leading to this decrease include increased restrictions on foreign parents wishing to adopt from China, as well as increased domestic adoption in that country, which, throughout the 1990's and early 2000's grew to be the largest "sending" country in U.S. foreign adoptions. Similar factors in Russia have decreased adoptions from that country, which has been in the number two spot recently. Guatemala, third on the top-three list has recently frozen new adoptions to overhaul its system and clean up unscrupulous adoption professionals. Similarly, Vietnam, another popular sending country has recently halted the process for adoptions out of country, leaving some waiting families in the lurch.
Ethiopia has been growing in popularity as a sending country in the past year, with a relatively smooth and predictable adoption process.
In spite of the visibility of foreign adoption in the media, the actual percentage of foreign adoptions of all adoptions in the United States annually is roughly 15-20%, with far and away the majority of adoptions being kinship adoptions in which a grandparent adopts a wayward child's offspring or a step-parent adopts a spouse's child from a previous relationship.
See Also:
The Trouble with Safe Haven Laws
Adoption Ban Passes
Image: children in a Russian orphanage everythingforadotion.com
