Transnationalizing Families: Race, Multiculturalism and Transnational Adoption

Kubo, Kazuyo

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Description

Title

Transnationalizing Families: Race, Multiculturalism and Transnational Adoption

Author(s)

Kubo, Kazuyo

Issue Date

2010-01-06T16:12:43Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Stevens, Gillian

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Stevens, Gillian

Committee Member(s)

• Jung, Moon-Kie
• Kenney, Catherine T.
• Marshall, Anna-Maria
• Zerai, Assata

Department of Study

Sociology

Discipline

Sociology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• interracial adoption
• family
• race
• transnational adoption
• multiculturalism
• transracial family

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes how people situate race when defining their own families through transnational adoption. Drawing from literature on multiculturalism, post civil rights colorblind racism, and family formation, I argue that perspectives on multiculturalism, colorblind ideology, and existing racial hierarchy significantly affect how prospective adoptive parents and adoption agency workers view race after the decision to create a family through transnational adoption. I first outline a brief history of transnational adoption and introduce some of the key actors that are involved in transnational adoption processes. I, then, provide an overview of demographic characteristics of families that contain adopted children from overseas by using data drawn from the 2000 U.S. Census. These analyses show that in cases where the parents’ race does not match their adopted child’s race, an overwhelming number of parents adopt Asian children. Turning to the data drawn from interviews and participant observation, I discuss how the adoption agencies educate adoptive parents in regards to how those parents build multicultural/multiracial families. I argue that presumptive notions of multiculturalism and acknowledgements of racism have influenced how adoption agencies educate adoptive parents. Finally, drawing on my interviews with adoptive parents, I examine how they internalize ideas about different racial groups. The discussion includes how adoptive parents decide to adopt transnationally as opposed to adopting domestically. I also investigate how their own perceptions of racial stereotypes and their perceptions of the communities in which they reside influence their understanding of race.

Graduation Semester

2009-12

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Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2009 Kazuyo Kubo

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