(Image above: The filmmaker, Glenn Morey, as photographed at the Holt Orphanage in Seoul, S. Korea. Used by permission of Glenn Morey, SideBySideProject.com, and Shift 1, Inc.)

Since the 1950s, South Korean adoption policies have set the precedent for policies in numerous other countries and led to nearly a million inter-country adoptions worldwide.

How and why did this happen?

For students and researchers starting their exploration of inter-country adoption, we recommend Tobias Hübenette’s concise, well-researched article, Korean Adoption History (Eleana Kim, ed., Community 2004. Guide to Korea for overseas adopted Koreans, Overseas Koreans Foundation, 2004).

Hübenette’s article provides important and authoritative historical context for what he calls “extreme migration patterns” both inside and outside modern Korea. His 12-page examination starts in 1860 and extends through to 2004 (when the article was published), outlining the historical events, as well as sociopolitical and economic forces, that shaped adoption out of South Korea.

In addition, the article is accompanied by an extensive reference list, presented by two of the most recognized scholars on this topic.

“International adoption, the movement of children from predominantly non-Western countries to adoptive parents in the West,” Hübenette writes, “was initiated on a large scale in connection with the Korean War.”

Side by Side’s oral history archive is an example of the dramatic human experience of this history. Understanding the events and forces that have shaped inter-country and South Korean adoption is critical to the scholarly application of the Side by Side project.