Orphans Coming to the U.S.A.

Why these five countries? This doesn't make any sense. It would seem more appropriate to include countries that have had civil wars in the past 10-15 years...Iraq, Sudan, Rwanda, Bosnia, etc.

Your graph was just spotlighted on the home page! Thanks for Swiveling!

Christian, the countries included in the graph are the top five countries in terms of numbers of children adopted by families in the U.S. I don't believe that there is any intentional bias, it is just showing historical figures.

There are many other countries in the data set - but for each year, only the top 20 were available on the Dept of State site.

Many countries do not allow international adoptions for various reasons. Iraq and Sudan fall in this category. As for Rwanda and Bosnia, very few adoptions have taken place because of the difficulty. Only 4 children applied for orphan visas in the U.S. in 2006. There are no agencies that work in Rwanda, meaning prospective parents have to do everything themselves. A daunting process. Bosnia and Herzegovina is similar and people who want to adopt a child must have 'overwhelming justification.' This is rarely granted for U.S. citizens. For info on specific countries, check out: http://www.travel.state.gov...

that 'anonymous' was me... forgot to login.