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“백인이 되고 싶었다” 한국계 미 입양아 성장기 정체성 혼란
구정은기자 ttalgi21@kyunghyang.com
경향신문
입력 : 2009-11-10 18:08:04ㅣ수정 :
미 국 내 해외 입양아들 가운데 큰 비중을 차지하는 한국계 입양아 대부분이 성장기에 정체성 혼란을 느끼는 것으로 조사됐다. 뉴욕타임스는 9일 입양아들이 유년기와 청소년기에 정체성 혼란을 느끼고 있는 것으로 나타났다는 조사 결과와 함께 한인 입양아들의 고민과 아픔을 전하는 기사를 실었다.
플로리다주 포트로더데일에서 고교 교사로 일하는 한국계 입양아 출신 조엘 밸런타인(35)은 3살 때인 1977년 백인 가정에 입양됐다. 백인들 속에서 자라난 그는 “인종적 정체성의 고민을 얘기하고 싶어도 자칫 양부모의 고마움을 모르는 것으로 비칠까봐 말할 수가 없었다”고 털어놨다.
한국전쟁 직후부터 2007년까지 미국으로 입양된 한국계는 16만명으로 미국 내 전체 한인 인구의 10%를 차지한다. 입양아들은 백인들에게 둘러싸여 있는 경우가 대부분이어서 인종적 혼란을 더욱 크게 느낀다. 61년 미국에 입양된 김은미 영(46)이라는 여성은 “어릴 때 양아버지가 한국과 관련된 선물을 사주면 모두 무시했고, 청소년기에도 백인 남자아이들만 사귀었다”면서 “서른이 넘어 나의 정체성을 깨닫고 생모에 대한 생각을 하게 되면서 큰 혼란을 겪었다”고 말했다.

JoongAng Ilbo
Celeb couple on board for adopting babies
February 04, 2008
(Cha In-pyo, left, and Shin Ae-ra with their adopted babies in a composite. [JoongAng Ilbo])
Whoever says celebrity couples are only good for drama has never met Cha In-pyo or Shin Ae-ra.
The well-known actor duo, married since 1995, told the JoongAng Ilbo they adopted a three-month old baby as their third child last month through the Social Welfare Society, a government-funded organization. The couple was inspired to adopt the baby girl, their second adopted child, while volunteering at the organization. Their new daughter's name is Cha Ye-jin.
"We thought it would be easier this time as we have adopted before," Cha said. "But we were still nervous the day before we picked up Ye-jin."

Information, Danish newspaper
Lørdag 24. maj 2008 (2008.5.24)
MED ANDRE ØJNE
Red en voksen, køb en spæd kineser
Den lave fertilitetsrate i de vestlige lande er i dag den primære grund til, at nogle vælger at adoptere. Det danske adoptionsselskab AC Børnehjælp kunne i virkeligheden lige så godt hedde AC Voksenhjælp, siger Maja Lee Langvad, der selv er adopteret - og i øvrigt lesbisk
22. maj 2008
Af: KRISTINA NYA GLAFFEY

Donga.com
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email: newsroom@donga.com
[2005 National Assembly Audit] Ministry of Health and Welfare “Overseas adoption to be banned in 4 to 5 years”
Plan to completely ban overseas adoption in 4-5 years promoted.
At the National Assembly Audit on the 22nd, Kim Geun Tae, the Minister of Health and Welfare said, “We have to end our shameful practice of exporting children overseas while we agonize over our low birthrate.” He continued, “We will make a 4-5 year plan and establish policies to discontinue inter-country-adoption.”
In the process of responding to the questions from Representative Kim Choon Jin (Uri Party), Minister Kim said, “The largest obstacle to converting inter-country adoption to domestic adoption is the cultural emphasis on blood ties. We will prepare programs to change the cultural climate.”

The Dong-A Ilbo
No Viable Solution to “Birthless Society”
JUNE 02, 2005 06:45
by Jin-KyeongKim TK Sohn (kjk9@donga.com sohn@donga.com)
Kim Ja-young (aged 31), the mother of an 18-month-old daughter, has a job. She doesn’t plan on having any more children, and her daughter is taken care of by her parents-in-law in Gwangju. They even tell her “We cannot baby-sit another one. Don’t ever think of having another one, even a son for us.”
Kim said, “It has been a while since I have seen my husband because we come home at different hours,” adding, “It would be too burdensome to have another baby because I love working. But most of all, babysitting is difficult to arrange and it is too costly to educate children in Korea.”
In Korea, the serious problem of women of childbearing age avoiding bearing children is arising. Childless or not, 50 percent of married women ages 30 to 34 answered, “I am not thinking of having children.” This means one child would do, just like in Kim’s case.

한인입양아 “백인이고 싶었다”
NYT “美 1세대 입양아 78% 인종정체성 혼란”
뉴시스 suwon@suwon.com
2009년 11월 11일 (수)
뉴욕타임스는 입양 후 인종적 정체성의 혼란을 느끼는 사례에 관한 보고서가 9일 공개됐다면서 한국 출신의 1세대 입양아 중 78%가 그들을 백인으로 인식하거나 어렸을 때 백인이기를 바랬던 것으로 나타났다고 전했다.
60%는 중학교에 들어간 후 자신의 인종적 정체성을 느끼게 됐다고 응답했고 61%는 성인이 돼 한국을 여행을 여행하며 모국의 문화를 체험하고 친부모를 찾는 노력을 기울였다고 말했다.
많 은 한국 입양아들은 대부분 백인 이웃들이 주변에 있는 환경에서 자랐다. 어렸을 때 인종적 차별을 당하고 드물게는 교사로부터 차별받는 일도 있었다. 또한 입양아 중 소수만이 한인들과 어울릴 때 환영받는 느낌을 가졌다고 답한 것으로 나타났다.

Information, Danish newspaper
16. juni 2008
Af: MAJA LEE LANGVAD
ADOPTION
International adoptioner en industri
Forskellen på adoptionsbranchen og andre brancher er, at der i adoptionsbranchen handles med mennesker. Men i og med, at det er en industri, har adoptionsselskaberne også en interesse i at fokusere på de gode historier
Information bragte den 23. maj en kronik af Anders Christensen (formand for adoptionsselskabet AC Børnehjælp) (AC) og Gitte Cordes (næstformand for AC Børnehjælp) (GC), som er bekymrede over den stigende kriminalitet i international adoption. AC og GC tegner et forsimplet billede, og deres forklaringer er kun overfladiske. Man må grave et spadestik dybere for at forstå dynamikken i international adoption og dermed også den voksende kriminalitet.

Unwed mothers need aid
Editorial from the JoongAng (한국어 밑에 있습니다)
November 14, 2009
The New York Times earlier this week carried a feature on the conflicts and struggles adoptees from South Korea endure while growing up in American families in a study of trans-racial adoptions. The study on first-generation children adopted from South Korea showed most have suffered an identity crisis either from racial discrimination or coming to terms with their ethnic origin. In fact, 78 percent had considered themselves to be white or had wanted to be white when they were children.
Some 163,000 children from South Korea have found adopted parents in other countries, mostly in the United States, between 1953 and last year. Ethnic South Koreans make up the largest group of trans-racial adoptees in the U.S.
The country has been trying to shake off the dishonor of being one of the largest “exporters of orphans.” Yet abandoned babies are still carried off overseas in search of families that want them. Most of the babies put up for adoption come from single mothers. Of 1,250 children adopted by foreign families last year, 90 percent were born to single women. Children continue to be put up for adoption because our society does not approve of unmarried women raising a child on their own. The same paper last month pointed out that most single women give up babies because Korean society eyes them almost like criminals. Adoptees and their adoptive parents instead of the Korean government launched a campaign in Korea to help single mothers keep their children.
It is a shame Asia’s third largest economy and a member of the G-20 still depends on others to help out an underprivileged group of its people.

Adopted From Korea and in Search of Identity
By RON NIXON
The New York Times
November 8, 2009
*See below for a link to the related study done by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute*
As a child, Kim Eun Mi Young hated being different.
When her father brought home toys, a record and a picture book on South Korea, the country from which she was adopted in 1961, she ignored them.

The Korea Times
05-22-2009 17:27
Days Without Adoption

By Kim Heung-sook
``It's yours," a Korean adoption agency official beamed as she handed a baby wrapped in white cloth to an American lady. Without saying a word, the latter received the baby carefully, revealing her love and welcome only through her gleaming eyes. From her tears brimming, I could tell that she had come through a lot of troubles to become a mother.
While I tried to feel happy for the little one, I couldn't resist a certain pang of sadness for some inexplicable reason. Was it because I didn't like the way the official called the baby? It is grammatically right to call a baby by the pronoun of ``it" when you don't know ``its" sex, but the word disturbed me somehow. When you are giving a book or anything away, you say ``It's yours," too, I momentarily thought.