Adoption and Kafala

Adoption is the formal, permanent transfer of parental rights to a family other than a child’s own and the formal assumption by that family of all parenting duties for the child. Where a child’s parents are living and their parental rights have not been terminated, they must provide informed consent for adoption. In some countries it is not culturally acceptable to give the parental rights to a non-family member, and therefore alternative long-term care options must be pursued e.g. kinship care. In some Islamic countries, the term ‘Kafala’ in Islamic law is used to describe a situation similar to adoption, but without the severing of family ties, the transference of inheritance rights, or the change of the child’s family name.

Given the permanency of adoption, it should be used very carefully and only when it is in a child’s best interests. In some cases difficult choices must be made between keeping a child in a temporary care situation in the hope of eventual family reunification, and a child’s developmental need for permanent attachment and care within a family environment. Adoption should not be considered an option in an emergency context. In the case of family separation in an emergency all tracing activities must be exhausted before adoption can be considered.

The long term care of a child requires thorough assessment and planning, and should include the participation of all those affected, especially the child in question. The choice for adoption must meet the child’s long term needs and wishes, and enable their healthy development into adulthood. Wherever possible, children should remain with siblings and encouraged to maintain contact with relatives. All adoptive placements should be in keeping with applicable national law and international standards.

Ideally adoptive parents should come from a similar cultural and religious background to the child, so that the child can retain her heritage and sense of identity. This will be more likely when the adoption is within the country of the child’s origin. The child care policies of a country must therefore provide mechanisms for formal state adoption procedures, and provide workers to support this process. Intercountry or cross border adoptions should be used with caution since the child is likely to grow up in unfamiliar surroundings, and may therefore be more isolated and exposed to risk. When intercountry adoption is in the best interests of a child, international protection agencies should ensure standards are met and procedures should be in keeping with the Hague Convention on intercountry adoption.

This section of papers includes country and policy examples of the use of adoption and guidance on practice.

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Child Trafficking for Adoption Purposes: A Criminological Analysis of the Illegal Adoption Market

Elvira Loibl - The Palgrave International Handbook of Human Trafficking, 19 Feb 2019

This chapter identifies the structural components of the transnational illegal adoption market by applying the basic logic of the routine activity theory that has been developed by Cohen and Felson.

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Special Section of the Journal of Research on Social Work Practice: Understanding Adoption Breakdown: When Adoptive Placements Don’t Go as Intended

Research on Social Work Practice, 01 Feb 2019

This special section of the journal of Research on Social Work Practice focuses on adoption breakdown.

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Comparison of Institutionally Reared and Maltreated Children on Socioemotional and Biological Functioning

Nicole B. Perry, Carrie E. DePasquale, Philip H. Fisher, Megan R. Gunnar - Child Maltreatment, 27 Jan 2019

The current study compared behavioral and adrenocortical functioning of maltreated and comparably aged (1.5–3 years) institutionally-reared children soon after (1.5–2.5 months) placement in foster care or adoptive homes, respectively.

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Adoption breakdown and adolescence

Carmen Paniagua, Jesús Palacios, Jesús M. Jiménez‐Morago - Child & Family Social Work, 22 Jan 2019

The aim of this article is to analyse the specific factors which influence adoption breakdown by comparing cases of adoption breakdown which occurred prior to the onset of adolescence with those occurring after the beginning of this developmental stage.

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Outcomes in adulthood of adoption after long-term foster care: A sibling study

Anders Hjern, Bo Vinnerljung, Lars Brännström - Developmental Child Welfare, 10 Jan 2019

To inform decisions about permanent care arrangements, the authors of this study used Swedish national population registers to create a sibling population consisting of 194 children born 1973–1982 who had been in out-of-home care (OHC) at least 5 years before adolescence but were never adopted (50% boys) and their 177 maternal birth siblings who also had been in OHC at least 5 years before their teens but were adopted before adolescence (52.5% boys).

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Conference Proceedings of the 1st International Conference of the Department of Social Work, University Of Nigeria, Nsukka on the Theme “Emerging and Contemporary Social Issues: The Place of Social Work Education and Practice in Nigeria”

Journal of Social Work in Developing Societies & University of Nigeria Department of Social Work, 04 Jan 2019

The First International Conference of the Department of Social Work, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, with the theme “Emerging and Contemporary Social Issues: The place of Social Work Education and Practice in Nigeria” was held 10-13 September 2018 and included 96 oral presentations of papers by delegates from across the country. Several papers focused on illegal adoptions of children in Nigeria and the role of social workers in addressing this practice.

Fostering and adoption in the UK within British Muslim communities

Dr Elizabeth Miller & Imran Butt - Bridge Institute for Research and Policy, 02 Jan 2019

This report examines the challenging relationship between Islam and fostering and adoption in the UK, and efforts currently being made to address it.

Black South Africans’ Perceptions and Experiences of the Legal Child Adoption Assessment Process

Priscilla Gerrand, Garth Stevens - Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 2019

This paper explores how Black South Africans perceive and experience the adoption assessment process regarding the adoption of abandoned children.

Adoption in the Netherlands: Preparation and post-care of adoptees, biological parents, adoption applicants and adoptive families in the Dutch adoption practice

Deutsches Jugendinstitut e.V, 2019

This report from the German Youth Institute (Deutsches Jugendinstitut e.V., DJI) assesses the adoption system in the Netherlands.

Promoting Adoptees’ Well-Being in Transracial Adoptive Families

Ellen E. Pinderhughes - The Future of Adoption: Beyond Safety to Well-Being, 2019

This paper discusses critical tasks facing adoptive parents of transracially adopted persons (TRAs), what we know about parents’ role and children’s outcomes.