Fall 2003

FEATURE ARTICLE

International Adoptions

One of the key features of Bill C-18, the proposed citizenship legislation, is the provision on adoption that would change the requirements regarding the acquisition of citizenship for people born outside Canada and adopted by a Canadian citizen. The proposed legislation would enable an adopted person to acquire Canadian citizenship without having to become a permanent resident. This diverges from the current legislation, which requires adopted people to come to Canada as permanent residents and then apply for citizenship. In addition, people adopted by Canadian citizens after reaching the age of 18 would be eligible for citizenship under the proposed act provided a genuine parent-child relationship existed prior to that time. Bill C-18 is currently in the House of Commons at the committee stage. This provides an opportune time to review the latest statistics on international adoption in Canada.

A consistent set of statistics on international adoptions can be extracted from the Citizenship and Immigration Canada permanent resident data files. Data are available from 1993 through to 2002. [note 1] As the chart below indicates, the total number of international adoptions has been fairly stable, averaging roughly 2,000 a year for the past decade. A high of 2,223 was reached in 1998 and a low of 1,738 in 1993. Over the past decade, Canadians adopted 19,576 children from abroad.

International adoptions are subject not only to Canadian laws, but also to the legislation in the child’s home country. Under current immigration categories, adoptions are classified as a component of the family class. The family class 6 category relates to children sponsored to Canada for the purpose of adoption in Canada. This category is fairly small: 205 in 2002, accounting for roughly 10 percent of all international adoptions. The family class 9 category relates to children who have been adopted abroad by a Canadian citizen. This is the most common type of adoption: 1,720 children were adopted in 2002 (90 percent of the total). For the purposes of this analysis, both categories have been combined to report the total number of international adoptions. [note 2]

The table below shows international adoptions by country of last permanent residence. In 2002, Canadians adopted 1,925 children from abroad, with the highest proportion of adoptions (800, or 42 percent) originating from China. China has been the major source of international adoptions, with 6,245 children being adopted during the 1993–2002 period. Other countries that were noteworthy sources of adoptions include India, Russia and Haiti. Flows by country can change significantly from year to year, which may be the result of changes in legislation or procedures, or temporary suspensions of foreign adoptions originating in source countries. For example, adoptions from Vietnam were “suspended” partway through 2002 and, as a result, adoptions from that country fell substantially that year. [note 3]

The majority of children adopted abroad have been female. Roughly 68 percent (13,337) of all international adoptions during the 1993–2002 period were females, most of them between the ages of 0 and 4 years (10,210). Males accounted for 32 percent (6,215) of adoptions during the same period and again, were mainly young children. The large female component of Chinese adoptions (98 percent) has an effect on the overall gender distribution. In fact, if we excluded adoption statistics from China, the split between males and females would be more uniform, with females accounting for 54 percent and males, 46 percent.

The destination of internationally adopted children is quite different from overall immigration trends. While Toronto has been the most popular census metropolitan area (CMA) for international adoptions over the past decade, it is followed closely by Montréal. In fact, in 2002, more adopted children settled in Montréal than Toronto, which is quite different from overall immigration statistics that show Toronto was the destination of 49 percent of all immigrants landing in 2002, and Montréal the destination of 14 percent. Other CMAs that have significant numbers of international adoptions include Vancouver, Québec City and Ottawa-Hull (Gatineau).

Table 4 indicates that the province of Quebec is the destination of a significant number of international adoptions. During the 1993–2002 period, residents of Quebec adopted the most children of all provinces across Canada (8,110, or 41 percent). Residents of Ontario adopted 6,573 children (34 percent), and residents of British Columbia, 2,806 (14 percent).

International adoptions account for only a small portion of overall immigration (roughly one percent), and the number of international adoptions by Canadian citizens and permanent residents has been fairly stable over the past decade. CIC is endeavouring to streamline the citizenship process for children adopted by Canadian citizens with the introduction of Bill C-18, thereby making the adoption process easier.

Note:

1. While statistics on international adoptions prior to 1993 are available, these data are classified in categories that are not easily separated and therefore would require sorting on an individual case basis, which is beyond the scope of this analysis.

2. It is important to note that a small number of adoptions under family class 3 have not been included in the total. International adoptions in the family class 3 category are made up of children adopted by Canadians living abroad. But these adoptions are not distinguishable from others within the category and therefore have not been included in the total. At present, there is an interim measure on adoption whereby Canadians living abroad can apply for a special grant of citizenship (by direction of the Governor in Council). The measure has only been in place since July 2001 and will remain in effect until new legislation is passed.

3. A bilateral agreement on international adoptions is currently being negotiated between Canada and Vietnam.

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