Children for Families: An Ethnography of Illegal Intercountry Adoption from Ethiopia

The article is an ethnographic description of processes involved in illegal intercountry adoption of children from Ethiopia. It is based primarily on interviews with 54 key informants having firsthand knowledge and experience in the adoption system in Ethiopia. The interviews were transcribed, coded, and categorized, which identified three analytically convenient stages leading to intercountry adoption from Ethiopia. A succinct description of the legal processes precedes and frames subsequent detailed description of illegal processes in each of the three stages. Finally, root causes that facilitated illegal intercountry adoption are discussed together with recommendations to address the identified causes.