Russian Babies, Russian Babes: Economic and Demographic Implications of International Adoption and International Trafficking for Russia

Abstract: In this article, the author examines Russian attitudes and policies toward international adoption and human trafficking--two trends not regularly addressed in discussions of the demographic problems facing Russia. The author argues that differences in the way the two kinds of outflows are treated are not appropriate given their economic and demographic consequences. Keywords: demographic crisis, human trafficking, international adoption, women in Russia ********** Russia faces a demographic crisis. With its high mortality rates and low birthrates, the Russian population has been shrinking for more than a decade. This trend is viewed with alarm in Russia for both economic and political reasons. A smaller population means fewer workers and soldiers, and it will likely decrease Russia's power internationally. In the words of Victor Yasmann, a senior regional analyst with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, "In the future, Russia, whose land makes up 30 percent of Eurasia, may simply have too few people to control its territory." (1) The demographic trends have generated a large body of scholarly work in both Russia and the West examining the two primary factors--births and deaths--that determine the size of the population. (2) In this article, I examine another two trends that influence the size of the Russian population and consider their demographic and economic significance: the adoption of Russian children by citizens of other countries and the international trafficking of Russian women. First, I briefly review Russian demographic rhetoric and policy. Next, I examine the trafficking of women from Russia. Finally, I discuss the issues of international adoption and children growing up in state institutions, such as children's homes or boarding schools. Although neither international trafficking nor international adoption occurs on the scale of births and deaths in Russia, they involve those age cohorts with greatest potential for productive and reproductive labor and are therefore worth examining. My findings suggest that although Russian attitudes and policies toward human trafficking and adoption are colored by demographic concerns, government policies generally fail to respond appropriately to the economic causes and consequences of these two phenomena. Demography To address Russia's demographic challenges, post-Soviet leaders, like their Soviet predecessors, have tended to focus on the birthrate, introducing policies intended to persuade women to bear more children, but such an approach will almost certainly not be enough to reverse the current trend, which reflects more than the decline in fertility typical of advanced industrial (or postindustrial) countries, in Russia, this decline has been exacerbated by the economic and social conditions that arose during the transition period. These have led to premature deaths, especially of young males, international trafficking of young women, and the "export" of young children through international adoption and have meant that many of the children and young adults who remain in Russia suffer from increased morbidity and decreased potential productivity. History shows us that pronatalist policies are tar more likely to affect the timing of births than the overall number of children women choose to bear. The intensive drive to increase the birthrate in the Soviet Union during the late 1970s and early 1980s was initially successful, but for only a short time. The births in the early 1980s simply occurred earlier than they would have otherwise) Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova's triumphant rhetoric notwithstanding, the recent uptick in the Russian birthrate is highly unlikely to indicate either a response to government policy or a long-term increase in fertility. (4) As Leonid Rybakovsky, chief research fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences' institute for Socio-Political Research, and Valery Yelizarov, head of the Center for the Study of Population at Moscow State University, both note, the increase in births is primarily due to a rise in the number of women of child-beating age, an increase that will be reversed in just a few years. …