In 2009, Americans adopted over 12,700 children from other countries. In 2024, international adoptions numbered fewer than 1,200. What has caused the decline of international adoption?
Availability
There are fewer children available for adoption internationally. Some nations have stopped allowing foreign adoption. One reason for this has been some widely publicized scandals, but there is also a growing emphasis on family preservation and kinship adoption.
For some nations, time has brought greater prosperity and fewer children in need of shelter.
There have been some political influences as well. For example, China is one country that has limited and then halted foreign adoptions. The nation is currently facing an aging population, a falling birth rate, and a serious imbalance of males and females. Foreign adoption can make those problems worse. Russia is thought to have ended adoptions from the United States in retaliation for some U.S. government actions.
Children available for adoption overseas are now likely to be older or to have special needs. Infants are rare, and the length of time involved in international adoptions means that children may be several years older by the end of the processs than they were in the beginning. Parents who hoped an international adoption would be an easier way to adopt a newborn now face disappointment.
Barriers
The Hague Convention in 1994 required evidence that foreign nations had tried to arrange local adoption for children who were to be adopted in the United States. There are other requirements as well, all designed to protect children, but many of them increased the cost and difficulty of international adoption. One of the most significant is the requirement that all children must have a paper trail. Some countries cannot provide this.
The pandemic brought about travel limitations, closed borders, and more, and some paths to adoption were disrupted permanently.
International adoption has become more difficult and much more expensive. In the past, some would-be adoptive parents saw international adoption as an easier or less expensive road to growing their families through adoption. Now, domestic adoption is more accessible.