Investigation reveals widespread corruption in Korean adoption system
The Korean and American flags fly next to each other at Yongin, South Korea.
U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Ken Scar | Creative Commons
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Minnesota has the highest concentration of Korean adoptees of any state in the U.S.
A new investigation by the Associated Press revealed widespread corruption in the Korean adoption system that has many adoptees questioning what they’ve been told about their past.
The report found South Korea’s government, Western countries and adoption agencies worked in tandem to supply some 200,000 Korean children to parents overseas, despite years of evidence they were being procured through questionable means.
Sara Docan-Morgan is a professor of Communication Studies at University of Wisconsin - La Crosse and she thinks a lot about the complications that come with being adopted from Korea by an American family.
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This year she published a book called “In Reunion: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Communication of Family.” She spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about it.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: Did you know that Minnesota has the highest concentration of Korean adoptees of any state in the US? An investigation by the Associated Press out this month revealed widespread corruption in the Korean adoption system that has many adoptees questioning what they've been told about their past. The report found that South Korea's government, Western countries, and adoption agencies worked in tandem to supply some 200,000 Korean children to parents overseas, despite years of evidence that they were being procured through questionable means.
Sara Docan-Morgan is a professor of Communication Studies at UWU Lacrosse, and she thinks a lot about the complications that come with being adopted from Korea by an American family. This year, she published a book called In Reunion, Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Communication of Family. And she's with us right now. Professor, thanks for taking the time. We appreciate it.
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: Yeah, thanks for having me, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: There's always, there's always a personal story behind research like this. What's your story?
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: Yeah, I think a lot of people maybe have heard the phrase that all research is semi-autobiographical, and that's certainly the case for me. I was adopted when I was four months old by my parents, who raised me in North and South Dakota, along with my two older sisters who were six and 10 years old at that time, who were my parents' biological children.
And so I grew up with two white parents and two white sisters in areas that were predominantly white. And then my book also focuses on partially my reunion story in reuniting with my Korean birth family when I was an adult.
CATHY WURZER: Mm, wow. So I can't even imagine what it was like for you growing up in the Dakotas, in South Dakota, as a Korean adoptee. What was that like?
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: I think that, in a lot of ways, it was OK in the sense that I had really loving parents, and I had sisters who were always really loving. And I think that gave me some sense of grounding.
And at the same time, I grew up knowing virtually nothing about Korea or adoption and felt very isolated, both culturally and racially, and had this sense that even though my parents loved me, that there was something about myself that I couldn't understand and didn't understand and, in some ways, was afraid to look at. And so a lot of my upbringing was focused on assimilating and trying to blend in as best that I could, which was actually not very well.
CATHY WURZER: I did not know, as I said in my introduction, that Minnesota has the highest concentration of Korean adoptees. Why might that be?
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: There's actually a culmination of reasons. Kim Park Nelson, who is a Minnesota adoptee, writes about this in her book. But a lot of the reasons have to do with things like Minnesota having historically progressive politics, which enabled state facilitation of adoption, but also the fact that Minnesota has historically been predominantly white with Scandinavian and German immigrants who actually, in those countries and cultures, have a sort of tendency toward accepting non-biological kinship.
But also the racial and ethnic homogeneity of Minnesota also meant that a lot of the racial tensions and racial conflict that have been in the news-- and this is obviously pre-George Floyd, especially in the 1770s and the '80s, weren't really things that felt very immediate to a lot of Minnesotans. And so a lot of the racial model that was laid out for Minnesotans was one of assimilation.
And so you had a lot of white adoptive parents, especially those from Christian backgrounds and Lutheran backgrounds, feeling like they were getting the message that they could help and do something humanitarian by adopting these children or babies who they thought were orphans and would have no chance of a meaningful life in Korea, that they were saving them. And so that was a big part of it as well.
And then what happened, especially in the Twin Cities, was that the more adoptees there were, the more resources there were for parents and adoptees. And so then there were more organizations and then, later on, camps and things like that that made adopting from Korea seem like almost like a normal practice.
CATHY WURZER: And then, of course, against that backdrop, we have the Associated Press reports out this month, the investigation, about these children, some, as I mentioned, 200,000 Korean kids being sent to parents overseas through questionable, or really, sometimes, downright unscrupulous means. How does that sit with you?
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: Well, I've been talking to some of my adoptee friends who are in this area of study as well. And this is something that adoptee scholars and activists and artists have been talking about for 10, 20 years, knowing that this has been going on. And so for us, it really wasn't groundbreaking information, but it is never going to be easy to swallow.
And I think that even though I had a really loving home growing up with my adoptive parents, the fact that, for me, for example, even though my paperwork-- and this is what the story is for a lot of adoptees-- paperwork said that I was abandoned on the doorstep of the police station, and then meeting my Korean family and finding out that they didn't intend to give me up at all, it's really difficult to reconcile those two things.
And for a lot of adoptees who are told, you were meant to be our daughter, or you are God's gift to us, it's really difficult to make sense of that dissonance because this report and other literature and stories like this really suggests that the child had not been meant to leave Korea. And so what was seen as the adoptive family's gain and blessing actually is something that caused terrible trauma for Korean families.
CATHY WURZER: Wow, and how does one heal from that? I can't even imagine where to start.
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: I think that it's difficult. And I think that people think that adoption is a one-time event, but in a lot of ways, it's a lifelong and ongoing process of making sense of one's life. And I think that people deal with it in a lot of different ways. I think sometimes people really lean into Korean adoptee community. I think other times, people just focus on the here and now and the life that they've been sort of given in their adoptive country.
I think that a lot of adoptees who you'll talk to, adoptees have a higher presence in going to counseling and therapy than the general population. And so I think there are a variety of ways to do it. And some search for their origins and try and make sense of their story, and some do not.
So I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all way to move forward. But I definitely think that the more one learns about the politics and practices and economic features of transnational adoption, the harder it is to look at it as simply an easy and desirable way to form families.
CATHY WURZER: By the way, since you've met your Korean birth family, what's it been like to build and maintain a relationship with them?
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: For me, it has been really healing. I think that for a lot of the adoptees who I talk to as well, it's not just one thing. It's healing. And it's also difficult because you have, on one hand, the sense of learning more about the family that you could have been raised in. And if it goes well, if those meetings and the relationship unfolds well, it feels like a loss. And certainly, that's true for me. And at the same time, if it goes poorly, then it also feels like a loss.
And so I think that riding whatever waves come is going to be challenging. And I think that there's also this sense of those sliding doors, which is like, if I had stayed in Korea and been raised with my Korean family there, then I wouldn't have the life and the love that I have right now, which is hard to imagine not having that either. So I think that it's really, in many ways, quite the puzzle to make sense of how you feel about all of these things, which is why I think that it's really important for adoptees to lean into support that they have and to seek adoption competent therapists when available.
CATHY WURZER: I wish I had more time with you. This has just been such a short time to talk with you, but I so appreciate your time and what you've written about.
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: Thank you so much.
CATHY WURZER: So thank you, professor.
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: Yes, thanks, Cathy. I appreciate it.
CATHY WURZER: We've been talking to UW Lacrosse Professor Sara Docan-Morgan. Her book is called In Reunion, Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Communication of Family.
Sara Docan-Morgan is a professor of Communication Studies at UWU Lacrosse, and she thinks a lot about the complications that come with being adopted from Korea by an American family. This year, she published a book called In Reunion, Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Communication of Family. And she's with us right now. Professor, thanks for taking the time. We appreciate it.
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: Yeah, thanks for having me, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: There's always, there's always a personal story behind research like this. What's your story?
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: Yeah, I think a lot of people maybe have heard the phrase that all research is semi-autobiographical, and that's certainly the case for me. I was adopted when I was four months old by my parents, who raised me in North and South Dakota, along with my two older sisters who were six and 10 years old at that time, who were my parents' biological children.
And so I grew up with two white parents and two white sisters in areas that were predominantly white. And then my book also focuses on partially my reunion story in reuniting with my Korean birth family when I was an adult.
CATHY WURZER: Mm, wow. So I can't even imagine what it was like for you growing up in the Dakotas, in South Dakota, as a Korean adoptee. What was that like?
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: I think that, in a lot of ways, it was OK in the sense that I had really loving parents, and I had sisters who were always really loving. And I think that gave me some sense of grounding.
And at the same time, I grew up knowing virtually nothing about Korea or adoption and felt very isolated, both culturally and racially, and had this sense that even though my parents loved me, that there was something about myself that I couldn't understand and didn't understand and, in some ways, was afraid to look at. And so a lot of my upbringing was focused on assimilating and trying to blend in as best that I could, which was actually not very well.
CATHY WURZER: I did not know, as I said in my introduction, that Minnesota has the highest concentration of Korean adoptees. Why might that be?
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: There's actually a culmination of reasons. Kim Park Nelson, who is a Minnesota adoptee, writes about this in her book. But a lot of the reasons have to do with things like Minnesota having historically progressive politics, which enabled state facilitation of adoption, but also the fact that Minnesota has historically been predominantly white with Scandinavian and German immigrants who actually, in those countries and cultures, have a sort of tendency toward accepting non-biological kinship.
But also the racial and ethnic homogeneity of Minnesota also meant that a lot of the racial tensions and racial conflict that have been in the news-- and this is obviously pre-George Floyd, especially in the 1770s and the '80s, weren't really things that felt very immediate to a lot of Minnesotans. And so a lot of the racial model that was laid out for Minnesotans was one of assimilation.
And so you had a lot of white adoptive parents, especially those from Christian backgrounds and Lutheran backgrounds, feeling like they were getting the message that they could help and do something humanitarian by adopting these children or babies who they thought were orphans and would have no chance of a meaningful life in Korea, that they were saving them. And so that was a big part of it as well.
And then what happened, especially in the Twin Cities, was that the more adoptees there were, the more resources there were for parents and adoptees. And so then there were more organizations and then, later on, camps and things like that that made adopting from Korea seem like almost like a normal practice.
CATHY WURZER: And then, of course, against that backdrop, we have the Associated Press reports out this month, the investigation, about these children, some, as I mentioned, 200,000 Korean kids being sent to parents overseas through questionable, or really, sometimes, downright unscrupulous means. How does that sit with you?
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: Well, I've been talking to some of my adoptee friends who are in this area of study as well. And this is something that adoptee scholars and activists and artists have been talking about for 10, 20 years, knowing that this has been going on. And so for us, it really wasn't groundbreaking information, but it is never going to be easy to swallow.
And I think that even though I had a really loving home growing up with my adoptive parents, the fact that, for me, for example, even though my paperwork-- and this is what the story is for a lot of adoptees-- paperwork said that I was abandoned on the doorstep of the police station, and then meeting my Korean family and finding out that they didn't intend to give me up at all, it's really difficult to reconcile those two things.
And for a lot of adoptees who are told, you were meant to be our daughter, or you are God's gift to us, it's really difficult to make sense of that dissonance because this report and other literature and stories like this really suggests that the child had not been meant to leave Korea. And so what was seen as the adoptive family's gain and blessing actually is something that caused terrible trauma for Korean families.
CATHY WURZER: Wow, and how does one heal from that? I can't even imagine where to start.
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: I think that it's difficult. And I think that people think that adoption is a one-time event, but in a lot of ways, it's a lifelong and ongoing process of making sense of one's life. And I think that people deal with it in a lot of different ways. I think sometimes people really lean into Korean adoptee community. I think other times, people just focus on the here and now and the life that they've been sort of given in their adoptive country.
I think that a lot of adoptees who you'll talk to, adoptees have a higher presence in going to counseling and therapy than the general population. And so I think there are a variety of ways to do it. And some search for their origins and try and make sense of their story, and some do not.
So I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all way to move forward. But I definitely think that the more one learns about the politics and practices and economic features of transnational adoption, the harder it is to look at it as simply an easy and desirable way to form families.
CATHY WURZER: By the way, since you've met your Korean birth family, what's it been like to build and maintain a relationship with them?
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: For me, it has been really healing. I think that for a lot of the adoptees who I talk to as well, it's not just one thing. It's healing. And it's also difficult because you have, on one hand, the sense of learning more about the family that you could have been raised in. And if it goes well, if those meetings and the relationship unfolds well, it feels like a loss. And certainly, that's true for me. And at the same time, if it goes poorly, then it also feels like a loss.
And so I think that riding whatever waves come is going to be challenging. And I think that there's also this sense of those sliding doors, which is like, if I had stayed in Korea and been raised with my Korean family there, then I wouldn't have the life and the love that I have right now, which is hard to imagine not having that either. So I think that it's really, in many ways, quite the puzzle to make sense of how you feel about all of these things, which is why I think that it's really important for adoptees to lean into support that they have and to seek adoption competent therapists when available.
CATHY WURZER: I wish I had more time with you. This has just been such a short time to talk with you, but I so appreciate your time and what you've written about.
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: Thank you so much.
CATHY WURZER: So thank you, professor.
SARA DOCAN-MORGAN: Yes, thanks, Cathy. I appreciate it.
CATHY WURZER: We've been talking to UW Lacrosse Professor Sara Docan-Morgan. Her book is called In Reunion, Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Communication of Family.
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