ABSTRACT
The quest to reproduce and have a child to parent is profound, propelling people with fertility barriers across familiar boundaries to territory dominated by issues of not knowing or being known by traversing bodies and borders to build families in what this chapter is calling invisible immigration. Invisible here refers to how personal identity may not be apparent, and origins may be hidden, inaccessible, or unknown to the individuals themselves. Immigration here captures the local and global movement of people and parts of people in the service of individuals finding children to parent, and the attendant impact on individual, family, social, and global identity and belonging. This chapter describes recent developments in both the national and globalization of family building, including inter-country and domestic adoption and third party reproduction (in vitro fertilization and egg, sperm, and embryo donation and gestational carrier/surrogacy arrangements). This chapter discusses the associated challenges these new families face, and suggests ways that psychoanalysis can support and strengthen these new family building choices.
