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This study examines the everyday racism (as defined by Essed, 1991) experiences of Swedes adopted from Korea, through a narrative analysis of two autobiographical novels by adoptees, Lundberg’s Gul utanpå (2013) and Trotzig’s Blod är tjockare än vatten (1996). It also discusses the role and implications of everyday racism.The study suggests that everyday racism is a constant feature in the adoptee’s life, with much of it relating to the adoptee being racially categorised as Chinese. This paper argues that racism against adoptees is used by white Swedes to maintain boundaries of privileged white space, and stems from a fear that adoptees, Swedish in everything but skin colour, threaten to blur the boundaries of white Swedishness. The covert nature of everyday racism, combined with Sweden’s colour-blind discourse and a national myth of tolerance and anti-racism, means that such racism is often denied or goes unrecognised, and is thus legitimised.

The number of families choosing to adopt a child internationally in the United States has increased exponentially on an annual basis (Johnson, 1997; Miller, 2000). The purpose of this study was to understand the adoption process experiences of families who have adopted a child between the ages of three and five years old from Russia or Romania after 1992. In this clinical sample, all participants' adopted children had been referred for and undergone neuropsychological, medical, speech, and/or language evaluation. Specifically, the research questions were designed to help therapists understand the role mental health care professionals, schools, family members, and friends played in the adoption process and how the participants' experiences compared with their preadoptive expectations. Twenty families were interviewed and several observations were conducted. Data analysis consisted of thematic analysis which elicited codes and themes across the interviews. This study's findings suggest that: 1) parents would have found more preparation before adoption helpful in the process; 2) health care professionals and schools need to be better educated about problems, concerns, and appropriate treatments specific to post-institutionalized children; 3) raising (a) special needs child(ren) puts significant strain on the caregiver(s) and their significant relationships; and 4) families with special needs children are extremely resilient. These findings are important for education and healthcare professionals, families who are planning to adopt internationally in the future and current adoptive families. / Ph. D.

Vi har en uppfattning om att internationell adoption och internationellt adopterade ofta associeras med TV4:s tv-program Spårlöst. Det gör att programmet har stort inflytande över vilken bild av adoption och adopterade som sänds ut i media. Vi har därför valt att göra en kvalitativ textanalys som undersöker hur Spårlöst framställer internationell adoption och internationellt adopterade. Syftet med studien är att synliggöra och kritiskt granska framställningarna. Vi hoppas att studien ska bidra till ett mediesamhälle som inkluderar adoption och adopterade mer. Studien bygger på konstruktivism och dess inriktning socialkonstruktionism. Studiens analysmaterial är valt utifrån avsnitten som visades under säsongen hösten 2016 med hjälp av den dramaturgiska kurvan. Genom att använda oss av hermeneutiken kan vi tolka textens innehåll och urskilja framställningarna i programmet. Tolkningarna stöds även av barmhärtighetsprincipen. Studiens slutsatser är att internationell adoption främst framställs som en väg till bättre förutsättningar, men också som en vinstdrivande verksamhet och som osäkert. Ytterligare slutsatser är att adopterade ofta framställs som positiva till sin adoption. Adopterade framställs även som identitetssökande och nyfikna personer, men också som personer som värdesätter familjerelationer. / Our perception is that international adoption and international adoptees often are associated with the tv-program Spårlöst shown on TV4. This could mean that the program may have a great influence over the images of adoption and adoptees shown in media. Therefore, we have chosen to do a qualitative text analysis which examines how Spårlöst portrays international adoption and international adoptees. The purpose of the study is to highlight and critically view the portrayals. We hope our study will contribute to a more including media society concerning adoption and adoptees. The study is based on constructivism and its orientation on social constructionism. The study’s analytical material is chosen from the episodes that were shown in the fall season of 2016 by using the dramaturgical curve. We can interpret the content of the text and distinguish the portrayals in the program by using the hermeneutics. The interpretations are also supported by the principle of charity. The study’s conclusions are that international adoption mainly is portrayed as a way to better conditions, but also as a profit organization and as unsafe. Further conclusions are that adoptees often are portrayed as positive towards their adoption. The adoptees are also portrayed as identity seeking and curious people. The study also shows that adoptees value relationships within the family.

<p>This is a study of popular cultural representations of international adoption and adopted Koreans in Western countries. The study is carried out from a postcolonial perspective and uses a cultural studies reading of four feature films and four popular songs as primary sources. The aim is to examine how nationalism is articulated in various ways in light of the colonial experiences in modern Korean history and recent postcolonial developments within contemporary Korean society. The principal question addressed is: What are the implications for a nation depicting itself as one extended family and which has sent away so many of its own children, and what are the reactions from a culture emphasising homogeneity when encountering and dealing with the adopted Koreans? After an introductory chapter, Chapter 2 gives the history of international adoption from Korea, and Chapter 3 is an account of the development of the adoption issue in the political discussion. Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 analyse the cinematic and lyrical representations of adopted Koreans in four feature films and popular songs respectively. Chapter 4 considers the gendering of the colonised nation and the maternalisation of roots, drawing on theories of nationalism as a gendered discourse. Chapter 5 examines the issue of hybridity and the relationship between Koreanness and Whiteness, which are related to the notions of third space, mimicry and passing. Linked to studies of national division, reunification and family separation, Chapter 6 looks at the adopted Koreans as symbols of a fractured and fragmented nation. Chapter 7 focuses on the emergence of a global Korean community, with regards to theories of globalisation, diasporas and transnationalism. In the concluding chapter, the study argues that the Korean adoption issue can be conceptualised as an attempt at overcoming a difficult past and imagining a common future for all ethnic Koreans at a transnational level.</p> / Avhandlingen är även utgiven på Jimoondang Publishing Company (Seoul, 2006) och ingår där i Korean Studies Series No.32, isbn 8988095952. The thesis is also published at Jimoondang Publishing Company (Seoul, 2006) in Korean Studies Series No. 32, isbn 8988095952.

<p> </p><p>Becoming an adoptive parent is not always easy. There are positive and negative factors affecting the parent’s experience. The aim of this study is to examine being an adoptive parent to an internationally adopted child based on association, parenthood and ethnic belonging. Frame of interpretation consists of attachment and separations, parenthood and family and ethnic origin and belonging. In order to fulfil the purpose of the study qualitative interviews were made. The selection consisted of six adoptive families that were separately interviewed, one occasion each. The result indicated that some families did not experience any specific difficulties in their parenting whereas other families did. The experiences differed between those who had adopted an older child and those who had adopted a younger child. Association was considered a long and time consuming process. The parents did not consider it to be anything special about being and adoptive parent but they mentioned that the child at the homecoming displayed symptoms from having gone through an adoption. The reaction from the surroundings had not affected the families to any extent worth mentioning but they still expressed that the child’s appearance was important as they wished the child to be similar looking. The conclusion is therefore that it is something special about being an adoptive parent.</p><p> </p>

This is a study of popular cultural representations of international adoption and adopted Koreans in Western countries. The study is carried out from a postcolonial perspective and uses a cultural studies reading of four feature films and four popular songs as primary sources. The aim is to examine how nationalism is articulated in various ways in light of the colonial experiences in modern Korean history and recent postcolonial developments within contemporary Korean society. The principal question addressed is: What are the implications for a nation depicting itself as one extended family and which has sent away so many of its own children, and what are the reactions from a culture emphasising homogeneity when encountering and dealing with the adopted Koreans? After an introductory chapter, Chapter 2 gives the history of international adoption from Korea, and Chapter 3 is an account of the development of the adoption issue in the political discussion. Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 analyse the cinematic and lyrical representations of adopted Koreans in four feature films and popular songs respectively. Chapter 4 considers the gendering of the colonised nation and the maternalisation of roots, drawing on theories of nationalism as a gendered discourse. Chapter 5 examines the issue of hybridity and the relationship between Koreanness and Whiteness, which are related to the notions of third space, mimicry and passing. Linked to studies of national division, reunification and family separation, Chapter 6 looks at the adopted Koreans as symbols of a fractured and fragmented nation. Chapter 7 focuses on the emergence of a global Korean community, with regards to theories of globalisation, diasporas and transnationalism. In the concluding chapter, the study argues that the Korean adoption issue can be conceptualised as an attempt at overcoming a difficult past and imagining a common future for all ethnic Koreans at a transnational level. / Avhandlingen är även utgiven på Jimoondang Publishing Company (Seoul, 2006) och ingår där i Korean Studies Series No.32, isbn 8988095952. The thesis is also published at Jimoondang Publishing Company (Seoul, 2006) in Korean Studies Series No. 32, isbn 8988095952.

Becoming an adoptive parent is not always easy. There are positive and negative factors affecting the parent’s experience. The aim of this study is to examine being an adoptive parent to an internationally adopted child based on association, parenthood and ethnic belonging. Frame of interpretation consists of attachment and separations, parenthood and family and ethnic origin and belonging. In order to fulfil the purpose of the study qualitative interviews were made. The selection consisted of six adoptive families that were separately interviewed, one occasion each. The result indicated that some families did not experience any specific difficulties in their parenting whereas other families did. The experiences differed between those who had adopted an older child and those who had adopted a younger child. Association was considered a long and time consuming process. The parents did not consider it to be anything special about being and adoptive parent but they mentioned that the child at the homecoming displayed symptoms from having gone through an adoption. The reaction from the surroundings had not affected the families to any extent worth mentioning but they still expressed that the child’s appearance was important as they wished the child to be similar looking. The conclusion is therefore that it is something special about being an adoptive parent.

Shifting from traditional deficit-based psychological research, the current study aimed to broaden the understanding of post-adoption development through a strength-based approach and further explore the recently developed Values in Action (VIA) Classification of Character Strengths among a particularly resilient population of young children-internationally adopted Chinese children. Archival longitudinal data of parents' descriptions about their adopted Chinese children's positive characteristics were analyzed from two time points two years apart. Data on 179 children ages 4 - 5 years old (M = 59.67 months SD = 6.60 months) in Time 1 from 172 families were analyzed with content analysis coding procedures. Overall, the profile of character strengths among young Chinese adoptees was very comparable to that of a general sample of young children assessed in a previous research study: Both samples had 11 of the 24 character strengths from the VIA Classification represented among 10% or more of the children, while the remaining character strengths were rarely represented in the children's data. The five most prevalent character strengths for Chinese adoptees were Love, Kindness, Humor, Zest, and Social Intelligence. The biggest difference between adopted Chinese children from this study and non-adopted children was that Zest and Social Intelligence were represented at much higher rates. There were no significant changes over time in all but one of the prevalence rates for character strengths (i.e., Love decreased from Time 1 to Time 2) and for the more broadly categorized virtues (i.e., Courage increased from Time 1 to Time 2). The two most prevalent virtues, Humanity and Courage, were associated with lower levels of externalizing and internalizing problems, respectively, which may point to the positive traits particularly related to this population's marked resilience. Results serve to provide a broader understanding of post-adoption development and offer the first longitudinal data on character strengths among young children.