There is a lack of research on the motivations of fosterers in countries that have traditionally used residential childcare institutions and are now shifting their policies towards family-based foster care. Understanding fosterers’ motives is important for developing an effective and long-term foster care system. The aim of this article is to understand the motivations of fosterers in a society that is undergoing deinstitutionalization process. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 active fosterers in Estonia (11 fosterers were from the Estonian majority and 5 from the Russian-speaking minority). The results show that new fosterers enter the foster care system with the desire to create a family and achieve a permanent arrangement. More experienced fosterers, who have fostered children for years, have done so largely because of the poor conditions in residential childcare institutions in the past. Although the foster care system has undergone significant positive changes, the improvements have not been enough to remove or lessen potential fosterers’ fears about the permanence and predictability of their fostering experience. These fears may lead to a foster care system that is inclined towards an arrangement similar to adoption where people prefer long-term care with fewer and younger children, leaving children who do not correspond to these criteria to remain in residential childcare institutions.
