The Crisis of Adoption and the Crisis within the Adoptive Families

Italy is characterized in the European market by a steady decline in fertility that does not correspond to a decline in the desire to parenting. The child continues to be for a couple a personal achievement element. In this socio-cultural context, national and international adoption has found a fertile ground for growth and development. For many years Italy has been the second largest country in the world for intercountry adoptions, position maintained even in the recent phase of the crisis that has seen the number of adoptions decreasing by more than a third worldwide. This paper tries to analyse the reasons for the global crisis and the reasons for Italy's stability. The analysis show the emerge of a new culture of intercountry adoptions that is changing the landscape of Italian families and questioning the services related to the design and implementation of services dedicated to these families.