We moved to Venezuela when our AA daughter was 5 months old. We haven’t faced any racism, just curiosity about us as a transracial family. The society here is composed of many different races: white, latinos, blacks, so they are pretty open in general.

But Europe might be more difficult as most of the societies there are very homogeneous (I am originally from Germany). It really depends on the country. International schools are generally great as they provide so much diversity amongst the students.

We are moving to Gambia this summer and I am excited that our daughter won’t be a minority for once…

Most Eurpoean countries are far more open to transracial families and relationships then most Americans. It depends on the country you are considering. Good luck.

We live in a large city in Germany. Our daughter was adopted from Guatemala. Our son was born while we were living here in Germany. Adoption is not as common, especially international adoption, here in Germany. As a whole here in the city we see a lot of diversity. In my daughter’s pre-school class there are many children from non-German backgrounds. She has kids (just in her class) where the families are from China, Ethiopia, Georgia, Turkey, Japan, and Guatemala/USA (us), and some kids who are have one parent who is German and one who is from Africa. From my son’s class you can add kids from Jordan and Morocco. She is by no means the only child with brown skin, even though we are in Germany. That being said, we also don’t live in the most diverse neighborhood we have ever lived in in this city. In an international school you generally find people from all over the world. Why do you say there will be cultural but not racial diversity in the international school?

Now, what we do not see here are other adoptive families—especially not seeing couples/ families who have adopted transracially. I have had people see my children and come up to me in front of my kids and say, “One black, one white.” We don’t get so much attention when it is just me and my daughter (because they think, oh her husband must have dark skin), but when people see us all together (two white looking parents, one brown skinned princess and our blonde/blued eyed little guy), that’s when we get the stares. I think people are trying to figure things out. Adoption is just not as common as it is in the US. Now, if you husband is African-American and you are white and your child has brown skin, you would not stick out. There are many mixed race couples in Europe.

Anyway, I love living in Europe. If you are actually coming to Germany, I could share more with you if you would like. All the best with this big decision!