The Korean Adoptee Community here in Seoul has constantly changed since I came to Korea. Back in 2003 there were some groups, mostly Americans and Europeans who tended to hang out separately. After the Gathering 2004 many adoptees decided to stay longer and during fall/winter that year we had a development into one large group of adoptees.
I still remember how we used to hang out in groups with at most 50-70 persons. All 2005 it was fun to hang out and the only fights were those between someone from our community and someone from outside. But already towards the end of 2005 there was a new trend visible.
More and more adoptees decided to come to Korea and to live here for at least one year. Naturally our community grew larger and larger. Towards end of 2005 there were maybe 150 adoptees living here and connected to each other through our text message list. That was the beginning of a big change. As soon as more than a certain number of adoptees arrived from one country they formed another group.
I guess this is natural and is called group dynamics. On one hand I miss those times when we were in such a large group. On the other hand it’s just a normal development. I wonder where the community will go to in the future. Of course we are still connecting all adoptees – irregardless to their background and affiliations – to each other as I think that the community is a very important thing here in Korea. The community is for many adoptees the only network they can rely upon since as adoptees we are foreigners in our own birthcountry.
