Inter-country adoption in Australia: Examining the factors that drive the practice and implications for policy reform

Abstract

The article presents the findings of an international literature review conducted to examine the factors that drive inter-country adoption rates within both sending and receiving countries. The authors then consider the implications of these findings for inter-country adoption policy reform in Australia. The evidence in the literature highlights a distinction between the factors that drive ICA in sending and receiving countries. Factors that drive the practice in sending countries relate to structural forms such as socio-economic and political conditions. In contrast, it is the growing demand for a child from infertile couples that drives the practice in receiving countries. The article then considers the challenges of domestic policy reform undertaken to increase numbers of inter-country adoptions in a context of global decline.