“Their biological family can and should be present in their lives”: structural openness in single-parent families who had adopted transnationally
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/dra.2022.004Keywords:
Transnational Adoption, Structural Openness, Single Parenthood, Search for OriginsAbstract
This article deals with structural openness in single-parent adoptive families. It focuses on the processes these families develop in searching for information about the families the children were born in and in establishing contact with them, as well as on the obstacles encountered along the way. It is based on ethnographic research carried out in Spain and, mainly, on qualitative interviews of 61 single women who, for the most part, had adopted transnationally. The results show that these adoptive mothers are very proactive in the search for information and contact with biological families, while granting their children a large degree of autonomy to establish and/or maintain this contact. Given that the structural openness of families is currently one of the most valued qualities in the field of adoptions, these results call into question the appropriateness of continuing to discriminate against single women seeking to adopt. The growing role of social networks in the “search for origins” is highlighted.
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