In a public lecture at the School of Public Policy at Central European University on February 11, PhD candidate Anand Murugesan explained how globalization and technological changes have led to an increase in international adoptions. This trend has unintended social consequences due to displaced adoptions of domestic children from the U.S. foster care system.
There are more than 500,000 children in the U.S. foster care system. Approximately one quarter of them are waiting to be adopted at any given time. As Murugesan explained, his research suggests that every three international adoptions displaces one domestic adoption. This decrease in domestic adoptions from the U.S. foster care system has an enormous effect on the children who are not adopted. “Our research suggests that about 85,000 foster children in the United States have been affected by the increase in international adoptions in the last decade,” said Murugesan.
The decrease in domestic adoptions also imposes significant social costs because of the documented link between time spent in foster care and higher than average rates of teen motherhood, drug use, juvenile delinquency, and unemployment. “Children who spend time in the U.S. foster care system are two to three times more likely to enter the criminal system as adults,” said Murugesan. He went on to observe that these links may not have considered carefully as the U.S. government provides a uniform tax credit that may particularly motivate households to choose international adoptions. “Our research suggests that the current policy to offer a tax credit for international adoptions should be reexamined,” he concluded.