ABSTRACT
International adoption is a relatively recent phenomenon in Australian history. Unlike the United States, where adoption of children who were victims of war became popular after the Second World War, international adoption in Australia did not commence in any systematic way until the Vietnam airlift in 1975. Adoption of children from South Korea commenced in the mid-1970s, and since the early 1990s, 30 percent of the total number of international children adopted has come from South Korea. During the 1990s, while the number of international adoptions in other Western nations, particularly in the United States, continued to increase, in Australia the number of international adoption placements decreased from 338 in 1991 to 289 in 2001 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2000–2001). However, the opening of an international adoption program with China in 2000 has contributed to the number of placements rising steadily each year. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report that a total of 421 international placements were made in 2005–2006, including 103 from South Korea and 116 from China (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2005–2006).
