Adoptive Parents and their Responses to Racism in Switzerland

Adopting a child from India in Switzerland "For us, it was clear that we would go and get Suhana ourselves. It was important for me in any case, and for my husband too. She was from the Mother Teresa home. For my husband, it was an absolute shock. […] I already knew the home. It had become more familiar for me. It's just very impressive, a home full of children. All of them would like to have parents, really. A challenging situation, I think. They introduced us to Suhana, and she was curious but kept herself hidden. We spent four or five days playing with the children in the children's home, but she never joined in. She was always watching in the background. That also worried me a little. I kept wondering, 'Will she come with us or not?' Then came the day on which we were due to leave. We had to go from Calcutta to Delhi to get the visa. And then we were able to take the bus from the Mother Teresa home to the airport, and Suhana screamed and cried. The flight was two hours late and she just sobbed for two hours. We were really thinking, 'Shall we take her back, or shall we just take her with us now, what shall we do?' She knew who we were. We had made her a photo album and she was well prepared. She knew she was getting on the plane and flying away with us, but at the airport she just screamed and screamed. Then we got on the plane and it was ok." 1 Mrs Amsler's description of her first encounters with three-year-old Suhana, who was to become her adoptive daughter, is illustrative of the intense emotions, challenges, uncertainties, doubts and overwhelming situations faced by the adoptive parents interviewed in this contribution. The interviewees were adoptive parents who between 1973 and 2022 adopted one or several child