Behind the transnational adoption system
Transnational adoption has often been portrayed in the West as a humanitarian solution, but what happens when we look at the systems behind it? Meet moderator and journalist Haena Laura Na Blankholm, Stine Moon Joo Pitney from Forum For Adoption Politics and Louise Kwang, one of the 56 people whose adoption cases have been selected for the South Korean Truth Commission.
In ‘Homesick’, we are introduced to the director’s life story as an adoptee from Korea to Denmark. Both the life she actually lived and the life that could have been are portrayed. The documentary asks the question: What if the systems had supported you, Omma (mother), in keeping me rather than taking me away from you?
The discussion after the screening takes its point of departure in this question and sheds light on the political, legal and economic systems that have enabled and shaped transnational adoption. Among other things, it is based on the latest partial conclusion from South Korea, which analyses 56 adoption cases to Denmark, among other countries, and finds violations of human rights.
In the panel, journalist Haena Laura Na Blankholm, together with Stine Moon Joo Pitney from the Forum for Adoption Politics and Louise Kwang – one of the 56 adoptees whose case is included in the partial conclusion – examines how notions of a ‘better life’ in the West have legitimised the practice and what structural frameworks have influenced transnational adoptions.
This conversation will be in Danish.