Displacement, Identity and Belonging for Ibyangin: The Personal Journey of Transracial Korean-Born Adoptees

The diaspora of Korean-born adoptees raised in the U.S. has led to a wide range of research into the experiences of Ibyanga and Ibyangin (Romanized Korean words for adopted children and adopted persons; E. Kim, 2010) including cultural and racial identity development, socialization, acculturation, self-esteem, and overall psychological well-being and adjustment (Baden, 2002; Baden & Steward, 2000; Friedlander et al., 2000; Hoffman & Pena, 2013; Shiao & Tuan, 2008). The present study advances the psychological study of transracial Korean adoptees through meaning making guided by qualitative interviews with 14 transracial Korean-born adoptees raised in the United States by White families. Our discussion begins by providing a socio-historical context on the Korean-born transracial adoptee diaspora, followed by an overview of identity and identity development constructs, the authors' horizon of understanding, the methods of the study, an integrated results and discussion section, and finally the conclusion and clinical implications. Historical and Political Context Geopolitics of Adoption Following the Korean War Originally a "social experiment" (Gathering of the First Generation of Korean Adoptees, 1999, p. 6), international adoption was considered a temporary solution to the upsurge of displaced/orphaned children as a direct result of the geopolitical, social, and economic factors surrounding the Korean War (1950-1953). In their efforts to rebrand themselves from colonizer and occupier to rescuer and relief worker, the US government and military (and later missionaries and relief organizations) worked steadfastly to solve the orphan crisis following the Korean War by funding and constructing over 400 orphanages (Pate, 2014). Without the US military presence and intervention prior to, during, and following the Korean War, Korea's social welfare system may never have adopted the western model of what is known today as international transracial adoption (see Pate, 2014, for a complete review of geopolitics). As a result of the significant social and economic hardships Korea experienced following the Korean War, the US government and military recruited middle-class families through strategic marketing, painting a picture that Korean orphans (those who had lost their parents due to the war, as well as those abandoned) needed first their financial help and soon thereafter their commitment as parents to Korean children (Pate, 2014). Since this occurred while the Immigration Act of 1924 (also known as the Johnson-Reed Act, which allowed immigration for 2% of each nationality into the US, excluding immigrants from Asia completely; Ngai, 1999; U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, 2015) was still in place in the US, and mixed race marriages were illegal in some states (in 1967 anti-miscegenation laws were deemed unconstitutional), special amendments and laws were passed in order for American parents to legally adopt Asian/Korean children (for example, the 1953 Refugee Relief Act and the 1957 Orphan Bill; see Pate, 2014). This US adoption initiative led to a continual stream of orphaned children available for adoption following the Korean War and throughout the Cold War era. Pate (2014) suggested that international transracial adoption of Korean children was one of the precursors to mixed race American families, but only with the dominant White individuals situated as parents/saviors of the minority Asians/Koreans, a striking parallel to the US's parental and colonizing role over Korea. According to the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare (as cited in the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, 2009), approximately 160,247 children have been adopted from South Korea to western nations (US, Canada, and European countries); 107,145 children were placed with families in the United States between 1953 and 2007, representing an estimated 10% of the Korean-American population currently residing in the US, and 54,068 were placed with European families. …