Parenting, citizenship and belonging in Dutch adoption debates 1900-1995

This article tests the use of the concepts ‘politics of belonging’ and ‘intimate citizenship’ for explaining (dis)continuities in intercountry adoption. It focusses on the Netherlands in the period 1900–1995. Adopters, adoption agencies and authorities in the countries of origin and settlement were the main actors. This article shows that adopters were claiming a right to a family, receiving states were granting or withholding rights, and adoption agencies were not only voicing moral claims and following a political agenda, but also a commercial one. In the discourse used in press and Parliament, intercountry adoption was justified and children were ‘freed for adoption’ by redrawing boundaries and hierarchies between cultures and nations, as well as by redefining the importance of ties, (dis)qualifying ‘parents’ and stressing state responsibilities.