Zimbabwe News Update
bbc
7 min read
Shirley Chung was just a year old when she was adopted by a US family in 1966.Born in South Korea, her birthfather was a member of the American military, who returned home soon after Shirley was born. Unable to cope, her birth mother placed her in an orphanage in the South Korean capital, Seoul.”He abandoned us, is the nicest way I can put it,” says Shirley, now 61.After around a year, Shirley was adopted by a US couple, who took her back to Texas.
Shirley grew up living a life similar to that of many young Americans. She went to school, got her driving licence and worked as a bartender.”I moved and breathed and got in trouble like many teenage Americans of the 80s. I’m a child of the 80s,” Shirley says.Shirley had children, got married and became a piano teacher. Life carried on for decades with no reason to doubt her American identity.But then in 2012, her world came crashing down.She lost her Social Security card and needed a replacement. But when she went to her local Social Security office, Shirley was told she needed to prove her status in the country. Eventually she found out she did not have US citizenship.”I had a little mental breakdown after finding out I wasn’t a citizen,” she says.
Shirley is not alone. Estimates of how many American adoptees lack citizenshiprange from 18,000 to 75,000. Some intercountry adoptees may not even know they lack US citizenship.Dozens of adoptees have been deported to their countries of birth in recent years, according to the Adoptee Rights Law Center. A man born in South Korea and adopted as a child by an American family – only to be deported to his country of birth because of a criminal record – took his own life in 2017.The reasons why so many US adoptees do not have citizenship are varied. Shirley blames her parents for failing to finalise the correct paperwork when she came to the US.
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