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Abstract
Pacific Islander migration poses a particular challenge to the international framework established to deal with the circulation of children, given divergent interpretations of kinship. The Hague Convention dealing with intercountry adoption cites legal adoption as the paradigm for guaranteeing the rights of children in all cases of circulation. The paradigm prescribes permanent and exclusive parenthood. Pacific Islander practices of child exchange contravene the paradigm, a clash evident in immigration rulings and in the outcome of adoptive transfers. Perceived irregularities in these modes of circulation provoke suspicion of child trafficking. For the West, the ability to systematically identify and track children distinguishes Pacific Island countries that are capable from those that are incapable of securing the proper transfer of children. Meeting international expectations, Pacific Island states still retain definitions of kinship, belonging and the right to move that disrupt the Western framework, with consequences for all modes of child circulation.
Acknowledgements
Participants in a session at a meeting of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania provided early critical comments. Chelsea Wentworth provided a subsequent intensive critique, as did Susan McKinnon. Discussions in the research group on kinship and politics at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Bielefeld, Germany further strengthened the paper. Reviewers for TAPJA added suggestions and references that improved my argument. Interpretations, and errors, are my own.
Notes
2 According to the 2010 US census, 22,434 Marshallese live in the US compared with 53,158 reported (in 2011) for the islands.
8 In a review of Jacqueline Bhabba’s On Child Migration and Human Rights in a Global Age.