Reply All | Letters: The 11.17.13 Issue

THE DREAM BOAT

Having grown up in Australia as an immigrant, I am dismayed at my country's policies. Without the populace noticing, the Australian government has created a second class of people: boat people. These individuals are turned into beads on some sadistic abacus. The proposed 2011 "people swap" — whereby 800 asylum seekers who had arrived in Australia were sent to Malaysia and 4,000 refugees whose claims were processed in Malaysia were to be accepted in Australia — epitomized this. Your article has surfaced on social media and in conversation here. People are finally engaging with the humanity of the issue, instead of with the numbers. I cannot thank you enough. KRISTÓF WING, Tasmania, Australia

As an Australian who works with refugees, I travel regularly to Akkar, the region in northern Lebanon that is home to some of those who lost their lives at sea off the Indonesian coast (and to whom you refer in your article). The paradox is that this region, despite offering little for its own people, is host to thousands of Syrian refugees. Many Lebanese families have shared their homes with total strangers, squeezing their families into one or two rooms of their houses to make space for a Syrian family. This is in stark contrast to the frantic, unfounded hysteria with which my government in Australia reacts to asylum seekers who arrive by boat. Thank you, Luke Mogelson and Joel van Houdt, for risking your own lives to write this article and for demonstrating the lengths to which people will go to secure what we take for granted. YANYA VISKOVICH, Beirut, Lebanon

Your article made me confront my own moral dilemma, the same one the Australian people and politicians have to face. I grapple with my tolerance for my own selfishness and the knowledge that there is no pot of gold for these refugees at the end of their imaginary rainbow. Either choice is tough. If you turn the refugees away, they face poor future prospects at home. If you accept them into your country, they face poor future prospects and could potentially become disruptive locally. Thank you for your thoughtful and gripping writing. And for making me think and feel. ROBERT S. MILLER, Danbury, Conn., posted on nytimes.com

A SUPERSIZE FAMILY

I am so conflicted by this story. I'm not anti-adoption — three years ago, my wife and I adopted a 3-year-old. But Misty and Jon's children have been transferred from foster care into mini-orphanages. The parents can't take care of all of these special-needs kids without help from the older children. It's unfair that Misty's daughter Lauren had to quit sports to help care for her siblings. And how did the social workers place children into a home that uses spanking for punishment? I'm not sure the adoption agencies, the social workers and courts are acting in the best interests of the children. CLAUDE LEWIN, Tenafly, N.J., posted on nytimes.com

Misty and Jon are rightfully praised for opening their home. But your article missed an opportunity to critically examine the foster-care system from which this couple adopted so many children. The paucity of families willing to adopt is not the main problem; it's that too many children languish in the system when they could be safely returned to their loving parents. Of the children who are in foster care, 47 percent of their parents have trouble paying for basic necessities. Yet under the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, states are encouraged to invest in adoption instead of reunifying families. Your story of the kind saviors who rescue children perpetuates the misguided view that the government can best care for children by removing them from their homes. PATRICK CLARK, Staff Lawyer, Family Defense Practice, The Bronx Defenders, N.Y.

"Always blown away by women who 'know' they want large families of '6-8.' Who are you?!" @elizabethm_j, via Twitter

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