The announcement of the end of child adoptions in China has confirmed a clear trend in Quebec as elsewhere: international adoption is a declining phenomenon that will eventually disappear.
The number of foreign adoptions fell to a historic low of 36 children last year in Quebec. And everything suggests that the decline will continue.
“This is a trend that will continue,” explains Geneviève Poirier, head of the Secretariat for International Child Services at the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services. She says it is a “global” trend that is being observed in other countries.
When we ask Mme Poirier says if people who want to adopt should stop counting on it altogether, the answer is quite clear: “Quebecers who want to adopt should turn more towards local adoption. That’s what I would recommend.”
This is quite a change when you consider that in the 1990s and 2000s, there were over 900 international adoptions per year in Quebec.
China recently announced that it would no longer allow Chinese children to be adopted abroad. And in many countries, adoption opportunities are becoming scarce.
Possible to be registered in Quebec at the same time
In this context, the government has recently allowed candidates for international adoption to submit adoption files in Quebec at the same time through the mixed bank.
The measure was introduced in January as part of a pilot project that affects applications filed in China, Burundi and Ukraine.
At its peak in 1998, China alone brought 489 children to our country in one year. In 30 years, nearly 7,000 Chinese children have come to grow up in Quebec.
Mme Poirier points out that other Western countries are experiencing the same thing. In Belgium, for example, the number of children adopted abroad has dropped from 265 to 32 in ten years. In France, their number has dropped from 1,569 in 2012 to 232 in 2022; in the United States, from 8,668 to 1,435, etc.
China is not alone in withdrawing from the world of international adoption, the official continues. The Philippines, for example, announced in October that it would no longer accept children “offered” for adoption on its territory. “All the applications submitted became null and void.” South Korea is also reviewing its rules on the matter, she notes. “It is very sad for people who register for the process and who wait many years. Unfortunately, we are dependent on the decisions of other states.”
A good sign
While this is bad news for aspiring parents, she points out that in some ways it is a good sign for children. “It means that countries are better equipped to take care of their children.”
Thus, more and more countries are complying with the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.
The agreement consists of a series of guidelines to prevent illegal, irregular, premature or poorly prepared adoptions as well as child trafficking. In Quebec, for example, it has become illegal to adopt a child abroad without going through a government-accredited organization.
The Convention further stipulates that priority must be given to the local life plan for the child and that international adoption must remain a protection of last resort.
As of today, 106 countries comply with this agreement out of the 195 recognized by the United Nations (UN).
“There are almost no more orphanages and daycare centers,” continues M.me Poirier: And when that is the case, the children who are put forward for international adoption are much older, belong to siblings and have significant health needs and psychosocial difficulties. However, “there is less interest among adoption candidates in receiving these children.”
Brakes in case of war
The sharp decline in international adoptions may seem surprising, however, when one considers the many deadly conflicts raging around the world, not to mention the millions of refugee children.
However, international rules are very strict in this regard. Adoption processes must be suspended when a country becomes unstable and there is the equivalent of a civil war or a natural disaster.
Why? “Because in such situations, it is very difficult to establish the identity of the children.” Children are displaced, birth documents are hard to find, and they may be separated from their parents without being orphaned. This is also why adoptions have been suspended in Ukraine or Haiti. The aim, in short, is to prevent child trafficking and trade.
At the rate things are going, will the Secretariat eventually have to close its doors? Not for now. The organization has other mandates, such as supporting internationally adopted children who are searching for their biological parents.
It also takes care of reporting on the progress of children adopted in their countries of origin. Finally, it handles international “intrafamily” adoption files, i.e. the adoption, by new Quebecers, for example, of children from their family (nieces, nephews) who have become orphans in their native country.