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ACT OF SEPTEMBER 26, 1961


1961

This law added more exceptions to immigration restriction by national quotas by
categorizing international adoption as a form of family reunification. 


DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

What requirements were imposed on the adoptions covered by this law?

Why did transnational adoptions gain popularity in this period?

Why was it important that these adoption were exempt from national immigration
quota restrictions?


SUMMARY

The practice of transnational, transracial adoptions gained popularity starting
with the adoption of Korean children during the Korean War (1950-53).
Euro-American families felt compelled to rescue children from the poor and
beleaguered nation, particularly mixed

race
children produced by relationships between U.S. military personnel and Korean
women. Until recently, Korean law excluded illegitimate children from social
services such as schools and health care, giving the mothers little choice but
to put their children up for adoption.  During the 1950s, Korean children were
admitted under stopgap refugee measures. Advocates campaigned for legislation
for the admission of foreign adoptees, which resulted in this law categorizing
their immigration as a form of family reunification outside of national
immigration quota restrictions.




SOURCE

AN ACT

” SEC. 2. Section 101(b) (1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act 171; 71 (8
U.S.C. 1101) is hereby amended by adding the following:

“(F) a child who is an eligible orphan, adopted abroad by a United States
citizen and spouse or coming to the United States for adoption by a United
States citizen and spouse: Provided That no natural parent or prior adoptive
parent of any such child shall thereafter, by virtue of such parentage be
accorded any right, privilege, or status under this Act.”

… No petition for nonquota

immigrant
status in behalf of a child . . . shall be approved by the Attorney General
unless the petitioner establishes to the satisfaction of the Attorney General
that the petitioner and spouse will care for such child properly if he is
admitted to the United States, and (i) in the case of a child adopted abroad,
that the petitioner and spouse personally saw and observed the child prior to or
during the adoption proceedings, and (ii) in the case of a child coming to the
United States for adoption, that the petitioner and spouse have complied with
the preadoption requirements, if any, of the State of such child’s proposed
residence…




ANALYSIS

Analysis of Act from A. Oh:

The 1961 act definitely marked the Korean child’s legal transformation from
refugee to

immigrant
by elevating foreign-born adopted children from the legal status of “eligible
orphan” to the more privileged category of “immediate relative.” The 1957 act
had required that a child first apply for admission through the quota system. If
the quota for the child’s country of origin was oversubscribed, she could then
receive a special non-quota immigrant visa based on her status as an “eligible
orphan.” As of 1961, Korean children bypassed the quota system altogether. As
family members who entered the United States with the status of “immediate
relatives,” they benefited from the immigration system’s emphasis on family
reunification, even when it conflicted with
race
-based exclusion (p. 150).



Excerpt from:
Oh, A. H. (2015). To save the children of Korea: The Cold War origins of
international adoption. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.




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   * Refugees / Asylum
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