In “The Leavers” by Lisa Ko, the story is about a mother, Polly, and her son Deming. Early in the book, when Deming was 11, he was abandoned by his mother and Deming was put into foster care short after. He was adopted by a family that is considered to be relatively well off financially and they live in a safer part of town too. In a way, being adopted gave him a better living situation and an opportunity to have the support of a loving family that was willing to take him in as one of their own and try their best to support him with an education and career as he grows up under their care. Since this story involved adoption, I wanted to look into the statistics behind adoptions and how the overall experience of adoption has worked with other families who have used the foster care system.

The research I found is in a research brief from the US Department of Health and Human Services, more specifically, the Office of The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (or ASPE). This research brief covers a 2007 study from the National Survey of Adoptive Parents (NSAP) and National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) about adoption. NSAP found that  “86% of parents had a motivating factor of wanting to provide a permanent home for a child” (NSAP), and that 75% of the families surveyed claimed that their parent-child relationship was “very warm and close” (NSAP). This research tells me that most families have been happy to help provide a child a permanent home and that they were able to develop a close and loving relationship with the child after adoption. I hope for the sake of the children, and the families seeking to help a child who needs a home that this percentage has gone up higher since the 2007 study and continues to trend upwards. On the bright side, this study found that overall, most children adopted from foster care were doing well with parents who are happy with the adoption. But there is still room for improvement, with 25% of parents who adopted a child not saying their relationship as “very warm and close” and a small percentage that would probably or definitely not adopt the child knowing what they know now (NSAP). Overall, the foster care system has helped many kids, like Deming in the book, and with the proper awareness and action, I believe we all can help to improve this statistic so that the foster care system helps more children be adopted into homes with loving families and grow to have a warm and close relationship with them in the process.

Works Cited

https://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/children-adopted-foster-care-child-and-family-characteristics-adoption-motivation-and-well-being

In The Leavers, Peilan is a young woman who immigrated to the United States by herself while pregnant with Deming. The Leavers depicts the many challenges that Peilan faced. She is ultimately taken away from Deming by immigration authorities. Immigration to a foreign country includes many challenges that Peilan experiences. In addition to general immigration challenges, there are gender-specific migration experiences that one goes through such as Peilan.

Traditionally, when one is talking about immigrants, the focus has been on “male migrants and their wives and children,” meaning that the focus is placed on the male, leaving the woman and children as second thoughts. Some countries have policies that classify men as “independent” migrants and women as “dependents,” referring to their relation to men as one of “wife” or “daughter,” (Grieco). Women are not seen as individuals that possess their own capabilities to seek out opportunities. This classification scheme present in many countries places extreme limits on a woman’s migration experience. It can slow down their process to gain legal citizenship, access language classes, and access income security programs when compared to the processes of men. Additionally, stereotypic classifications can play a role in the work women do. They typically enter fields such as domestic service as opposed to the labor workforce (Grieco). For women that need to work, as in the case of Peilan to support herself and Deming, this can limit the different careers available.

In addition to the popular gender classification scheme, women’s migration experiences are dependent on the resources they bring with them like employment, education, and familial and social networks (Erez). Peilan came by herself and with limited resources. She did not even have a male acquaintance with her, disqualifying her from the “special treatment” families that contain male figures receive. Due to the lack of access to resources and services, women are not able to seek health, social, and legal services (Erez).

Currently in the United States, more than 23 million female immigrants exist, far exceeding the number of male immigrants (“Immigrant Women and Girls in the United States.”). Therefore, many are affected by the intersectionality of being both a woman and an immigrant.  Throughout time, sex roles have been increasingly incorporated into conversation surrounding migration, but there needs to be more of an effort to ensure equal access to resources to both immigrant men and women.

Works Cited:

Erez, Edna, and Shannon Harper. The Handbook of Race, Ethnicity, Crime and Justice, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2018, pp. 457–474.

Grieco, Elizabeth, and Monica Boyd. “Women and Migration: Incorporating Gender into International Migration Theory.” Migrationpolicy.org, Migration Policy Institute, 18 July 2019, www.migrationpolicy.org/article/women-and-migration-incorporating-gender-international-migration-theory.

“Immigrant Women and Girls in the United States.” American Immigration Council, American Immigration Council, 25 Sept. 2020, www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/immigrant-women-and-girls-united-states.

In The Leavers we follow Deming into the relationship he has with his white adoptive parents who don’t know his mothers language and don’t make an effort to keep him connected with anyone of his friends before his adoption. Transracial adoptees struggle with knowing their background and history because it is different than that of their adoptive parents. “Race and identity were the central issues that emerged in the life history interviews I conducted with twenty-two transracial adoptees” (Patton 2). The concern of transracial adoption is that the white parents will not be able to understand and help the non-white child through the racism that occurs along with not being able to share their culture with them.

International adoption started in 1955, Chinese international adoption it didn’t start until 1992. Most of the children were put up for adoption because of Chinas one-child policy which only ended in 2015, this created a place where parents didn’t want to give up their child but were forced to. In America there has been a large anti-Asian sentiment (Choy 4), creating a place where Asian children have struggles unknown to their parents. For the children adopted by parents of a different ethnicity this makes them not part of the white community because they aren’t white and are surrounded by predominantly white people/norms but also makes it harder for them to fit in with other children of their birth culture because they don’t grow up with parents teaching them about their culture or important parts of their ancestors past.

Interracial/international adoption by white parents is seen sometimes as the white parents having a “savior” complex, or that they’re colorblind. This is damaging because it is good to see our differences and good to interact with the childs culture instead of ignoring it. This is shown in The Leavers by the Wilkinsons changing Demings name after he has grown up identifying with it and in turn stripping his culture that he grew up with from him. “The displacement of birth creates a heady confusion regarding how to map these different forms of collectivity onto socially legible constructions of person- hood” (Jerng x). Deming has to change his identity when he loses his mother, friends, and his name and is forced to leave his culture behind.

Work cited:

Patton, Sandra Lee. Birthmarks : Transracial Adoption in Contemporary America. New York University Press, 2000.https://muse-jhu-edu.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/chapter/166412. Accessed 13 Mar. 2021.

Jerng, Mark C. Claiming Others : Transracial Adoption and National Belonging. University of Minnesota Press, 2010.https://muse-jhu-edu.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/chapter/902447. Accessed 13 Mar. 2021.

Choy, Catherine Ceniza. Global Families: a History of Asian International Adoption in America. New York Univ. Press, 2013. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=MuYTCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=white+savior+complex+in+adoption&ots=sNEmk7cEo-&sig=ISZoNf6Pb2jmAMz9x26zqaZoZ0M#v=onepage&q&f=false.

The Leavers by Lisa Ko follows the story of a young boy named Deming Guo. When Deming’s Mother leaves and he ends up in a foster home, Deming, who is an Asian-American, is forced to deal with many cultural differences between the traditional Chinese parenting styles that he experienced as a child versus those of his foster parents. Now, we will look at a few traditional Chinese parenting cultures to help us better understand some of the changes Deming experienced.

One example of a difference between US and Chinese parenting styles is the perceived strictness and emphasis on academics by Chinese parents. Deming is seen as someone that is supposed to be good at math and is labeled with this stereotype because of the accomplishments of those who look like him. This stereotype is believed to have come from the fact that Chinese parents are often seen as parenting with a more authoritarian style (Parentingscience.com 2019). This obviously is not always the case, but being somewhat authoritarian as a parent is seen as less taboo in Asian cultures compared to Western cultures.

Another example of a cultural difference is the traditional Chinese emphasis on the family unit and the defined roles of said unit. According to (Scroope 2017), Chinese families often adopt the Confucian view of families which focusses on the importance of maintaining a good family relationship. This would be difficult for Deming as he struggled to have a close relationship with his biological family.

Finally, Chinese parents tend to do more for their children and prepare less for them developing independence. As we learn early on, Deming fends for himself quite often. This cultural taboo would have made Deming an outlier in comparison to other Chinese families.

Deming was not raised in a traditional Chinese family, however these cultural differences still presented obstacles for Deming to overcome. Cultural differences can always create barriers

Work Cited:

“American and Chinese Parenting Styles.” American and Chinese Parenting Styles | International Programs, 29 Aug. 2011, https://international.uiowa.edu/news/american-and-chinese-parenting-styles#:~:text=Confucian%20culture&text=Chinese%20parents%20want%20their%20children,bring%20honor%20to%20the%20family.

In the novel The Leavers by Lisa Ko, Polly, Deming’s mother, is detained by US immigration authorities in New York City and sent to an immigration detention center in the fictional Ardsleyville, Texas for 14 months. The novel depicts her treatment in the camp and the insufferable living conditions she endures. She is left in an unheated room with lights that are always on and given minimal time to eat and go outside. Her time at the camp ends after she endures physical and mental injuries and is deported back to China. 

While this is a fictional novel, it is based on the true stories of millions of immigrants who were stripped from their families because of immigration status. Deportation in the United States has been increasing at an alarming rate.  Between 1892 to 1997, approximately 2.1 million immigrants were deported from the United States. Approximately 2 million immigrants were deported during George W. Bush’s presidency. Approximately 3.2 million immigrants were deported during Barack Obama’s presidency (Yearbook 2019). Immigration detention centers are not new either. The United States’ first immigration detention center was established at Ellis Island in the 1890s. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan made the first major revision to US immigration by establishing the Interdiction Agreement, which led to the establishment of Guantanamo Bay as a detention center (Ellis Island: States of Incarceration). 

Centers like the one depicted in The Leavers are operated by the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division of I.C.E. There are 961 detention sites across the United States and Puerto Rico, but only 8 centers are directly operated by I.C.E. The majority of detention centers that are contracted out and include juvenile detention centers, shelters, and state & local jails (Immigration Detention Centres). 

“Yearbook 2019.” Department of Homeland Security, 28 Oct. 2020, www.dhs.gov/immigration-statistics/yearbook/2019. 

“Ellis Island: States of Incarceration.” Ellis Island | States of Incarceration, Humanities Action Lab, statesofincarceration.org/story/ellis-island. 

“Immigration Detention Centres.” Global Detention Project | Mapping Immigration Detention around the World, Global Detention Project, www.globaldetentionproject.org/detention-centres/list-view.

In this novel, we learn that Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, is an undocumented immigrant who works at a nail salon in the Bronx, New York. Growing up in rural town in China and moving to the United States meant that Polly had to leave Deming Guo with his grandfather in order for Polly to work up enough money for them to live. When the book begins, they are living with Polly’s boyfriend Leon in his predominantly white neighborhood and get judged for speaking a different language and looking different than those around them. These painful consequences are only a small part of the risks that Polly has to live being an undocumented immigrant.

People who immigrate to this country to live are technically supposed to go through a process to become a full citizen and member of our nation. Some, however, do not go through this process for many reasons and live in our country illegally, or without documentation. This affects the entire lifestyle of a person; they constantly live with fear of being deported or getting in trouble. The country of the United States has changed over the course of our history in regard to undocumented immigrants and their lifestyles, but not much.

Through research about undocumented immigrants in America, I found that a study in 2014 provides evidence that “undocumented immigration has not increased the prevalence of drug or alcohol problems”, which is one positive side of the research. However, an article about undocumented children’s mental health written in 2013 states there is evidence of a connection in decline of mental and emotional health in these children due to their situation. When focusing on articles written over 30 years ago, I found that the country was much less focused on the positive aspects that can come with immigrants, undocumented or documented, and were definitely not focusing on the mental and emotional health of their children. The political climate of the time was focused on the theme that immigrants did not belong.

Through reading The Leavers, you get insight into the lives of both undocumented parents and children and the struggles that they have to face in their everyday lives to stay in this country and life a happy life.

Free, Janese L., et al. “Harvesting Hardships: Educators’ Views on the Challenges of Migrant Students and Their Consequences on Education.” Children and Youth Services Review, vol. 47, no. Part 3, Dec. 2014, pp. 187–197. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.08.013.

Gonzales, R. G., et al. No Place to Belong: Contextualizing Concepts of Mental Health Among Undocumented Immigrant Youth in the United States. 2013. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/0002764213487349.

Light, Michael T., et al. “Undocumented Immigration, Drug Problems, and Driving Under the Influence in the United States, 1990-2014.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 107, no. 9, Sept. 2017, pp. 1448–1454. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2105/AJPH.2017.303884.

The novel The Leavers by Lisa Ko details the story of Deming Guo and his journey in America after his mother’s sudden disappearance. The story is actually based off of a 2009 article from the New York Times about a woman who was detained by I.C.E at a bus stop while waiting to go to work in Florida, which is similar to what happened to Deming’s mother. Immigration is something that is often encouraged and what differs the United States from other countries. The effects of immigration play a constant role throughout the novel and show a more accurate depiction of the obstacles that families can face when trying to travel somewhere else to seek a better life. 

According to The Pew Research Center (2012), from 2000 to 2010 the Asian-American immigrant population grew by an additional 2.8 million. The process to become a citizen can often times be stringent and time-consuming, taking up to a year in some cases (International Rescue Committee, 2018). Combining the sudden surge of immigrants during that time with the already long process to become a citizen, many are left as undocumented or “illegal” immigrants, such as in the case of Deming and his mother. This can lead to detention and deportation, which can separate parents from their children. This sudden separation can be devastating, as the case with Deming, and can lead to negative effects that hinder the child’s development. From 2009 to 2012, the number of detentions increased by 25 percent (Center for Migration Studies, 2016) which lines up with the novel and why Deming’s mom ended up getting detained due the increase in enforcement and detentions.  

Immigration is a great thing and allows people from all over the world to take control of their lives and strive for better. When done properly, it is a beautiful process that can change the course of a family for generations but the process can be very taxing and can have lasting negative effects that are hard for any family to overcome.   

Works Cited:  

“Chapter 1: Portrait of Asian Americans.” Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project, Pew Research Center, 19 June 2012, www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2012/06/19/chapter-1-portrait-of-asian-americans/. 

Ink, Social. “Immigration Detention: Behind the Record Numbers.” The Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS), The Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS), 19 July 2016, cmsny.org/immigration-detention-behind-the-record-numbers/. 

“How Immigrants and Refugees Become U.S. Citizens.” International Rescue Committee (IRC), International Rescue Committee (IRC), 16 Sept. 2020, www.rescue.org/article/how-immigrants-and-refugees-become-us-citizens.