Adoption in forced situations: On the history of national and international adoptions in Switzerland from the 1960s to the present day
The history of national and international adoptions in Switzerland has hardly been investigated. For the persons concerned, an adoption is drastic, with the adopted and their families of origin experiencing a cut in their paths of life. Seen historically, in adoption procedures, welfare and coercion often interacted.
Project description (completed research project)
It is the study’s goal to investigate the dynamics of welfare and coercion in national and international adoptions since the 1960s. Focus is placed on the action undertaken by the authorities and civil law organizations. The legal bases, development of adoption statistics, and the viewpoints of the persons concerned are analyzed and put in correlation, in line with a multi-perspective approach. Past research has shown that unwed mothers in Switzerland often lived in precarious economic circumstances. In the 1970s, they were pressured to give their children up for adoption. With the decrease of intercountry adoptions, international adoptions gained in importance. Studies carried out to date indicate that too little consideration was given to the welfare of the children.
Results
The summary of the results for this project are available here:
Original title
Adoption in forced situations: On the history of national and international adoptions in Switzerland from the 1960s to the present day