Upon adoption transnationally and often transracially, adoptees must shed their birth cultures, lose their birth languages, separate from their birth families, learn new languages, assimilate to new cultures, and build connection to new parents, siblings, and environments. And all of this happens when they are infants, toddlers, or even school-aged children who have memories and connections in their birth countries. In adulthood, transnational adoptees often seek to better understand their identities as adoptees who want and need to reclaim their origin stories and their birth cultures.
This presentation will address the following questions. How do adoptees identify? What’s most salient: race, adoption, or culture? How do we cope with the stigma associated with adoption and relinquishment? This presentation will attempt to answer these questions by exploring the development of adoptee identity, cultural-racial identity, the means for adoption socialization, and reculturation (i.e., reclaiming birth culture).
