HISTORICAL STUDY OF ILLICIT PRACTICES IN INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION IN FRANCE

Background to the study In 2021, 

Yves Denéchère, professor of contemporary history at the University of Angers and director of the TEMOS research laboratory (CNRS UMR 9016), proposed to the Mission de l'adoption internationale (MAI) that a historical study be carried out on illicit practices in international adoption in France. On the basis of a scientific project that he had drawn up, the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (DFAE, Direction des Français à l'étranger et de l'administration consulaire - MAI) agreed to fund a 12-month post-doctoral mission (year 2022) and signed an agreement with the University of Angers and the TEMOS laboratory. Fabio Macedo, a PhD in history with a thesis on the history of adoption (EHESS, 2020), has been recruited by the University of Angers as a postdoctoral researcher to carry out this work under the supervision of Yves Denéchère. The agreement binding the parties, signed in December 2021, stipulated that the research work was to produce a "Historical study of illicit practices in international adoption in France". It was agreed that the scientific direction and orientations of the research would be the sole responsibility of the laboratory, that the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs would not be involved in its drafting, which was strictly respected, and that the research report would be disseminated freely. This is why the document has been posted on the HAL SHS portal. After an introduction defining the purpose of the research and placing it in the current context, particularly European, this document is divided into four parts. A review of the academic literature analyses how, by whom and why illicit practices in international adoption have been studied (I). The bibliography lists the books and scientific articles published on the subject (II). The main part of the research report consists of an annotated guide to the sources - archives, audiovisual sources, the press - used to document illicit practices (III). Finally, t