International Adoption from Portugal

It is almost impossible for Americans to adopt from other English-speaking countries, such as Ireland, or from Western European countries, and no American agencies have programs in these places.The reason is very simple. There are far more people from these countries who want to adopt children, than there are children to be adopted. It's very much the same situation as in the U.S. People from Western Europe or the English-speaking nations often go to countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, or the Pacific or Caribbean islands, just as Americans do, when they don't want to stay on waiting lists in their own countries for years.Why are there so few children? Again, the reasons are simple:1. Prosperity. Compared with other parts of the world, Western Europe and the English-speaking countries are FAR more prosperous, overall. By far, the most common reason for a family to place a child for adoption is desperate poverty. In Portugal, the rest of Western Europe, and the English-speaking world, you don't find thousands of children dying of hunger and preventable or easily treatable illnesses like measles or intestinal parasites every year. That's not the case in many other parts of the world, where parents may make an adoption plan simply to ensure that a new baby will survive. It is interesting that South Korea's amazing rise in prosperity over the past few decades has caused the availability of adoptable children to shrink dramatically; its situation contrasts sharply with that of neighboring North Korea, which doesn't permit international adoption, but has many citizens in desperate poverty, a high infant and maternal death rate, a high rate of morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases, and so on. Failed economic policies, plus some natural disasters, have contributed to the country's lack of adequate food resources.2. Social safety net. In prosperous countries, there are still some people of very limited income. But one reason why those people aren't dying of hunger and disease is that their countries can afford to provide programs to help them, and to prevent other people from falling into poverty. Most Western European and English-speaking countries, including Portugal, have some form of financial or other benefits for the elderly, the unemployed, new mothers, babies, and so on. Most, including Portugal, offer some form of national health insurance and medical institutions that are accessible to people of all income levels. Most focus on projects, such as the promotion of universal immunizations against common infectious diseases, that reduce mortality and morbidity, especially among the poor. And most make the provision of safe drinking water, sanitary toilet facilities, and adequate food supplies as key priorities. As a result, most families don't need to abandon or relinquish children to get their basic needs met.3. Education. Education is critical if people are to be equipped to take jobs in today's economy. Most Western European and people in the English speaking world have access to a free basic education; in Portugal, it is offered to all children under 18. Unfortunately, access to education is not a given in many countries, especially for ethnic minorities. Before the shutdown of Guatemala's adoption system, most of the families relinquishing children were from the indigenous ("Indian") population. Due to a lack of free and compulsory education, most of the families spoke an ancient Mayan language, rather than Spanish, and were illiterate even in that language. As a result, they were unable to get jobs that paid well, and often could not afford to raise their children.4. Sex education, delayed marriage, and fertility control. In most Western European and English-speaking countries, the birth rate is low and most families have few children. In general, these are countries that encourage young people to complete their education and start a career before they marry and/or become parents. Although they may encourage abstinence before marriage, they generally support sex education for both males and females, and support the use of birth control -- even in countries where the Catholic church, which opposes the use of artificial methods of birth control, is powerful. Abortion is often, though not always, available. Under such conditions, few children become available for adoption. By contrast, in Guatemala, girls from the indigenous population are not generally taught about reproduction and fertility control, and do not generally see options for the future except for motherhood. Boys, on the other hand, are taught to equate fathering children with masculinity. As a result, early sexual activity is common, birth control is almost never used, and couples may wind up with very large families. Combined with limited income and no social safety net, the end result is a need to place children for adoption. And given the fact that many wealthier Guatemalans, usually of European origin, do not want to adopt "brown" indigenous children, international adoption was the solution.5. Natural and manmade disasters. Over the past few decades, fortunately, Western Europe and the English speaking countries have seen relatively few large scale natural disasters, such as highly destructive earthquakes. They have also seen relatively few manmade disasters, such as civil wars and terrorist attacks. And because of the countries' overall prosperity, when such phenomena occur, the countries have the resources to deal with them. As an example, when terrorists hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon in the U.S., killing many people, no children wound up in orphanages or foster homes; all had another parent or other relatives who could afford to take them in. On the other hand, the aftermath of famines and civil wars in some African countries, earthquakes in India, the AIDS epidemic in Ethiopia, and so on have been children deprived of their parents and lacking other relatives and community members with the resources to take in another child.6. Domestic adoption options. In Western Europe and the English-speaking countries, people tend to support domestic adoption, and can afford to take in "another mouth to feed". While there are still people who believe in the importance of the "blood tie", and cannot imagine adopting an unrelated child, most are quite comfortable with the notion of taking in a child who needs a home, and will even find religious justification for adoption -- for example, in the Biblical story where baby Moses was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. In some countries, such as the U.S., even transracial adoption is fairly common. As a result, given the limited number of children without parents, and especially young and healthy children without parents, there are far more people willing to adopt than there are children in need of homes. In many other countries, however, there is still a cultural barrier to domestic adoption of unrelated children. The Japanese will often place a child in an orphanage if his/her parents are having marital, financial, or health problems, but not officially relinquish him/her for adoption. Culturally taught to believe in the blood tie, many parents fear that anyone wanting to adopt an unrelated child must be a pedophile, a sex trafficker, or a slave trader. And in other countries, the economics of supporting an additional child often make it impossible for domestic families to adopt.All in all, you would do well to forget about adopting from Portugal or any other Western European country . It is possible that there might be children in the Azores who need adoption, as some social safety net options available to other Portuguese people are not always available there. However, you are unlikely to be able to adopt them, at this time, unless you are American expatriates living in Portugal. Take a look at what the U.S. State Department says about adoption from Portugal, at Basically, because Portugal is a Hague country, if you lived in the U.S., you would need to use a Hague-accredited American agency approved by the Portuguese government, and the Portuguese government has not accredited any such agencies at this time, probably because domestic adoption is adequate to accommodate most of the available children. If you were permanent residents of Portugal, however, you could possibly adopt there, and then use the I-130 process to obtain the child's U.S. citizenship.Sharon