Emigration for Adoption: The National Catholic Welfare Conference and the Adoption of Italian Children in the Unted States

Since the end of World War II intercountry adoptions became an integral part of child welfare services in the United States. One of the American organizations more actively involved in this process was the National Catholic Welfare Conference and, since 1951, most part of the cases handled by this organization and by the Catholic Committee for Refugee involved minors from Italy. The massive campaign for adoptions, carried out within the American Catholic community, created a huge demand for Italian children: during Fifties and Sixties, more than 3500 of them were welcomed by US families, mostly of Italian origin, creating a sort of unusual “migration chain”.