Saturday, March 15, 2014
Empire (Omni Shoreham)
This talk reviews the continued popularity of intercountry child adoption by parents residing in several European countries to consider the particularly diverse civic identity of adopted children as the critical characteristic of a 'new' and idealized post-national
population of Europeans. Looking at the accrued growth in the numbers of children adopted by European families residing both in well-established receiving countries in Northern Europe for over 60 years as well as in several newly emerging nations over the past decade, I evaluate the material prevalence of the intercountry adoptee child population as an undervalued step in the creation of a new and definitively multicultural European
identity. It is a practical assessment of the effect of several late 20th century EU regional efforts to include protections for migrating children as well as increases in the national adherence of member nations to the terms of multinational accords such as the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (1989). Reflecting upon the initial aims of these measures to protect the interests of a diversifying EU citizenry in ways that reflect regional understandings of citizenship, I consider present perceived value of cross-border reproduction. I examine depictions of a post-national and politically regional political identity developing for an accruing population of adoptees naturalized by EU nations with chronic population replacement needs and recent histories of conflicts over methods of acculturating adult immigrant populations.
population of Europeans. Looking at the accrued growth in the numbers of children adopted by European families residing both in well-established receiving countries in Northern Europe for over 60 years as well as in several newly emerging nations over the past decade, I evaluate the material prevalence of the intercountry adoptee child population as an undervalued step in the creation of a new and definitively multicultural European
identity. It is a practical assessment of the effect of several late 20th century EU regional efforts to include protections for migrating children as well as increases in the national adherence of member nations to the terms of multinational accords such as the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (1989). Reflecting upon the initial aims of these measures to protect the interests of a diversifying EU citizenry in ways that reflect regional understandings of citizenship, I consider present perceived value of cross-border reproduction. I examine depictions of a post-national and politically regional political identity developing for an accruing population of adoptees naturalized by EU nations with chronic population replacement needs and recent histories of conflicts over methods of acculturating adult immigrant populations.
