Discrimination by society still pushes women who have pregnancies outside of marriage to give up their children for adoption, and the pressure often begins in the family of origin. Single-parent families in South Korea are the poorest among OECD countries. For years there has been a massive resort to international adoptions although in recent times the situation is changing.
Seoul () – In 2023, 229 South Korean children were adopted, 150 nationally and 79 through international adoption, according to data published by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. This is a significant drop compared to the past – in 2011 alone, 2,464 children were put up for adoption – but the majority of children entrusted to other families are still children of single mothers, who in South Korea suffer strong discrimination from the society.
Almost 73% of the children adopted last year were given up for adoption by single mothers, a figure that, although high, can be said to be an improvement compared to previous years: in 2018 it was 99.7%, in 100% in 2019, 99.6% in 2020 and 99.5% in 2021.
And this despite the fact that South Korea is the country with the lowest birth rate in the world. In recent years the government has proposed the most extreme policies to combat the decline in births, from matchmaking events for young people to encourage them to marry, to “baby bonuses”.
But maybe, some commentators maintain, it might be more useful to try to support so-called single-parent families. Single parents in South Korea are the poorest of all the countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In a survey carried out in 2019 among 1,247 single mothers, 42% of those interviewed responded stating that financial difficulties turned out to be the most difficult aspect to face during pregnancy.
A 2022 study It also showed that, despite the increase in out-of-wedlock births, single mothers suffer above all from the (negative) image of an unmarried mother that society imposes on them. Many women stressed that government support is essential (such as in the case of community homes for single mothers who cannot raise their children with grandparents or afford to live alone), but is often insufficient.
The marginalization of single mothers usually begins in the family of origin. According to 2017-18 data93% of unmarried pregnant women said they had been pressured to abort or give up their child for adoption after giving birth.
Others hide from their colleagues or employers that they have a child and in this way give up the financial benefits to which they would be entitled. In 2020, for example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the government introduced the possibility of granting 10 days of paid leave to single parents, but many women did not take advantage of it. Similarly, younger women, in the event of pregnancy, feel forced to abandon their studies, sometimes pressured by the school itself, despite the fact that there is a recent law that guarantees the right to study for pregnant students.
“Nowadays there is less stigmatization, but society’s attitude creates many challenges for both mother and child,” explained Paul Kim, director of the non-profit organization Holt International’s programs in Korea and Mongolia. “Laws can be changed tomorrow, but societal attitudes take decades to change,” he added. “That’s why some children and some mothers don’t reveal to other people that they are single parents or children of a single parent, because of the discrimination they might face.”
Even in the case of infanticide, the main motivation In the vast majority of cases that occurred between 2013 and 2020, it was “fear of getting pregnant outside of marriage and having family, friends, and acquaintances find out.”
Korean society attaches great importance to blood ties and therefore has a certain aversion towards adoptions. The situation has recently begun to change, but for decades, since the end of the Korean War, which had left many orphans, thousands of South Korean children were sent to other countries with international adoptions.
Between 2004 and 2021, more than 16,000 South Korean children were adopted, earning very high figures for the four Korean agencies that deal with adoptions abroad. Between 2018 and 2022 alone, they earned 22.1 billion won in commissions from adoptive parents of more than 1,180 minors, an average of 18.7 million won ($14,000) per child. To which are added the funds allocated by the government.
Surrogacy is a practice that was considered illegal in Korea, but will become feasible starting next year when a new adoption law comes into effect.
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