Author criticizes agencies for cashing in on int'l adoption

Maja Lee Langvad speaks during a press conference held in Mapo District, Seoul, July 7. Courtesy of Nanda Publication

In newly translated book, 'She is Angry,' Korean Danish author urges Korea to stop 'exporting' babies, calls for more financial support for unwed moms

By Lee Yeon-woo

Being lauded as "heroes" during the Korea's industrialization period, manufacturing workers were commonly portrayed as a key driving force behind Korea's dramatic rise from a war-torn country to one of world's fastest-growing economies in the 1970s.

Although their contribution was forgotten, however, there is another unknown group of people who also played a part in Korea's rapid economic growth: adoptees.

From 1956 to 1994, many Korean babies were sent North American and Western European countries through international adoption. Korea's uncontested status as the world's largest exporter of babies was later replaced by other developing countries.

In a report titled "Comforting an Orphan Nation," lecturer and author Tobias Hubinette says Scandinavian countries such as Norway, Sweden and Denmark adopted the most Korean children per capita during that the period. In Denmark, nearly 8,000 Korean babies were adopted between 1970 and 2021, according to Danish International Adoption (DIA).

In the book titled "Hun Er Vred" in Danish, which can be translated into English as "She is Angry," author Maja Lee Langvad shares her life as a Korean adoptee in Denmark. Her book was translated recently into Korean and published here. "She is Angry" is the Korean adoptee's personal account of her and fellow adoptees' lives in Europe and the traumas of adoption.

Born in 1980, Langvad said she was raised hearing that she would have struggled in poverty and hunger if she had not been adopted. Ever since she came out as a lesbian, people began to tell her that she was so lucky to get the chance to live in Denmark, a country more "open" to sexual minorities.

The cover of "Hun Er Vred" by Maja Lee Langvad. Courtesy of Nanda Publication

She has observed that those attitudes toward Korean adoptees reflect a sense that developed countries are superior to developing countries.

"I was asked to feel grateful for being adopted for my whole life," Langvad said.

But, she said, she has different feelings about her life as a Korean adoptee in Denmark.

She calls herself a victim of transnational adoption, a term she chose to use instead of "international adoption," claiming that it better shows the structural inequalities between countries.

"She is angry because she was imported. She is angry because she was exported," Langvad writes in the book. The author said she uses the third person to refer to herself instead of the first person, because she believes that what she felt and experienced while growing up can be generalized to what other adoptees went through.

"She thinks contemplating children's nationalities for adoption is no different from choosing wines in department stores based on their countries of origin," the author added.

She is sharply critical of the nature of transnational adoption, as she says that it is a business and adoption agencies are cashing in by "selling children overseas."

"Even though national adoption is better for children in most cases (as adoptees share the same nationality and national culture of their adoptive parents), those agencies indiscriminately send children abroad to get higher brokerage fees," Langvad said.

According to Rep. Kim Sung-ju of the Democratic Party of Korea, private adoption agencies get paid an average of 2.7 million won for each national adoption and 20 million won to 30 million won for each international adoption. Holt International is known to charge around 48 million won to 68 million won for adopting a Korean child abroad.

The adoption agencies denied the allegation, claiming that the money goes to operating orphanages and employees' salaries.

An orphanage in Korea operated by Holt International Korea Times file

International adoption in Korea first began in 1954 after the Korean War left a large number of biracial Korean children, later expanding to monoracial Korean children.

Today, unwed mothers who stay at shelters run by adoption agencies are often solicited to fill out an adoption agreement during counseling without being given sufficient information, according to Choi Hyoung-suk, the public relations manager of the Korean Unwed Mothers and Families Association (KUMFA).

Nine out of every 10 babies ― of the 492 babies adopted last year ― were born to single mothers, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

"She is not a person who unconditionally opposes transnational adoption. She is angry because adoption is misused to deal with babies from single mothers and parents in poor conditions," Langvad said.

Instead of transnational adoption, Langvad suggest more financial support and building more shelters for parents and unwed mothers as the best solution, before adoption is considered.

She said her target audience is Korean readers, as she has a message to deliver to them.

"In this wealthy country where the birthrate is at an all-time low, why do you keep sending children abroad?" Langvad asks.