Heritage for difference, culture for belonging: white Canadian parents’ incorporation of black children born in the United States
Date
2011-09-06
Authors
Little, Alix Lesley
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Abstract
Prospective adoptive parents in British Columbia are required by provincial law to attend workshops on parenting. Key advice given to parents wishing to adopt transnationally, transracially, or both, suggests promoting a positive identity in their children; an identity founded on feelings of belonging within their own family, as well as an acknowledgment of their background. This advice is largely influenced by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, as well as Canada's national policy of multiculturalism.
Bearing these external laws, policies, and ideologies in mind, this thesis explores how white Canadian parents who adopt black children from the United States respond to this advice. Within this thesis, I contextualize the adoption of black children from the United States by white Canadian parents in a local, national, international and global historical perspective.
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Keywords
Adoption, Transnationalism, North America