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The Adoptee Rights Campaign (ARC) has launched its 2017 Campaign for the Adoptee Citizenship Act, which intends to grant automatic citizenship to all intercountry adoptees. Since the 1940s, over 300,000 children have been adopted from abroad by U.S. citizen parents with the promise of a better life. The burden of securing citizenship for intercountry adoptees was placed on the adoptive parents, and there are now an estimated 35,000 adult adoptees who lack U.S. citizenship.* Without citizenship, adoptees have limited work and travel options, cannot access public benefits or qualify for home loans, and are at risk for deportation to countries where they have no known family, do not know the language or culture and have little chance of survival.
Intercountry Adoption Research
Best Interests of the Child in Intercountry Adoption, by Nigel Cantwell, UNICEF Office of Research, 2014.
Intercountry adoptions peaked in 2004 at just under 23,000 and then began to decline—a pattern that exists worldwide. The most recent figure reported by the U.S. Department of State for 2013 was 7,092.
U.S. Department of State, Intercountry Adoption Statistics:
http://travel.state.gov/content/adoptionsabroad/en/about-us/statistics.html
Global Statistics:
Key Tables for Intercountry Adoption: Receiving States 2003-2012; States of Origin 2003-2011. Peter Selman (2013).
Intercountry Adoption from A to Z. U.S. Department of State, Office of Children’s Issues.
Understanding the Hague Convention. U.S. Department of State. Intercountry Adoption from Hague Convention and Non-Hague Convention Countries. Child Welfare Information Gateway. (July 2014).
Intercountry Adoption Facts & Figures
Intercountry adoptions peaked in 2004 at just under 23,000 and then began to decline—a pattern that exists worldwide. The most recent figure reported by the U.S. Department of State for 2013 was 7,092.
Global Statistics:
Key Tables for Intercountry Adoption: Receiving States 2003-2012; States of Origin 2003-2011. Peter Selman (2013).
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