Ideals of parenting and childhood in the contact zone of intercountry adoption: Assessment of second-time adoption applicants in Sweden

Abstract

Intercountry adoption is a global phenomenon, a contact zone in which notions of ‘good parents’ and ‘the child’s best interest’ are negotiated. This article explores what norms of parenthood and childhood Sweden, as a receiving country, communicates in the global flow of children and ideas. Adoption assessment reports are examined, with a focus on how adoption applicants are portrayed and how ‘good parents’ are thereby constructed. The analysis demonstrates how certain qualities, for example, being loving, self-sacrificing and child-centred, are ascribed to applicants, and how the presentation of ‘good parents’ also defines a proper childhood.