2020/04/27 by Marlou Schrover
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Canadian Identity and History #Child Welfare and Adoption #Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/1070289x.2020.1757252
crossref issued 2020/04/27 · crossref published 2020/04/27 · crossref published-online 2020/04/27 · openalex publication_date 2020/04/27 · crossref created 2020/04/27 · crossref published-print 2021/01/02 · crossref deposited 2021/05/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/26
This article tests the use of the concepts ‘politics of belonging’ and ‘intimate citizenship’ for explaining (dis)continuities in intercountry adoption. It focusses on the Netherlands in the period 1900–1995. Adopters, adoption agencies and authorities in the countries of origin and settlement were the main actors. This article shows that adopters were claiming a right to a family, receiving states were granting or withholding rights, and adoption agencies were not only voicing moral claims and following a political agenda, but also a commercial one. In the discourse used in press and Parliament, intercountry adoption was justified and children were ‘freed for adoption’ by redrawing boundaries and hierarchies between cultures and nations, as well as by redefining the importance of ties, (dis)qualifying ‘parents’ and stressing state responsibilities.