“Some quick napkin math shows us then that in 2024 alone, overseas adoptions earned them $3,108,000 while facilitating domestic adoptions ‘only’ accounted for $424,000.”
Every year, around Children’s Day, the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare publishes its statistics on adoption. For 2024, 58 children were sent overseas, while 212 children were adopted by Korean families. Of the 58 intercountry adoptions, 41 were to the US (HCS, ESWS, KWS), 5 to Australia (ESWS), 4 to Canada (KWS), 3 to Sweden (KWS), 3 to Norway (HCS), and 2 to Italy (KWS). (Source: https://www.mohw.go.kr/board.es?mid=a10107010000&bid=0040&act=view&list_no=1485947&tag=&cg_code=&list_depth=1 )
Even in 2024, of the Big 4 – that is, Holt Children’s Services Inc. (former HAP, now HCS), Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS), Korean Welfare Services (former CPS/SWS, now KWS), Korea Social Service (KSS) – only KSS has stopped its overseas adoption programme.
People are often surprised to hear that Korean overseas adoption has not ended yet, assuming that it was a social welfare measure enacted because of poverty. So if we – for the sake of argument – ignore the obvious need for policies that prevent family separation through offering support for the birth family to raise their own child(ren) and take a look at the development of the number of domestic and overseas adoptions in Korea over the past decades, what conclusions can we draw?
It is often then more surprising to learn that it was not until 1969 that the number of intercountry adoptions surpassed that of domestic adoptions. More Koreans adopted than people often expect. Domestic adoption even became a priority in the mid-1970s when North Korea pushed against the South, accusing them of “selling their children”, and again briefly in the late 1980s when the Olympics were organised in Seoul.
Despite the fundamental flaws embedded in their approach to reduce overseas adoptions, both campaigns were highly effective, with a 37% reduction in four years in the 70s and an even more drastic 75% reduction in seven years in the 80s and 90s. This all reveals that this “need” for transnational adoption as a form of child welfare has been overstated. Korea has shown that, when willing, it could push for domestic forms of care.
For a more recent example, in the 2008 special national audit into adoption, it was revealed that in June of that year, the Big 4 had a combined number of 1969 Korean prospective families waiting for an adoptive child, while there were 1410 children waiting to be placed in a new family. (Source: https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/opinion/column/893719.html ) Yet, by the end of 2008, 1306 children were placed inside Korea while 1250 were sent overseas. One might be inclined to ask: why?
Because a child from Korea can be adopted for a ‘measly’ $45,105 – $62,090 according to the 2025 price sheet from Holt International, while a Korean family pays about $2,000 (Source: https://www.holtinternational.org/…/Schedule-of-fees… and https://www.mohw.go.kr/menu.es?mid=a10711030500 ).
Some quick napkin math shows us then that in 2024 alone, overseas adoptions earned them $3,108,000 while facilitating domestic adoptions ‘only’ accounted for $424,000.
As long as people are willing to pay, the cogs in the system will keep churning, and children will be sent to the highest bidder.
B.S.V. Flikweert