Third Culture World
I have been hearing the term Third Culture Kid for a while in reference to army brats. Not so long ago, I found out they have a whole website for kids who grow up abroad.
The definition of a Third Culture Kid on the website is:
“…a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside their parents’ culture.”
Not only is this definition reminiscent of my blog description, but it describes all first generation immigrants in the US. A lot of the information on the website is geared towards American kids who grew up abroad, but I think that these issues touch a much larger group. For instance, the website discusses Cross-Cultural kids and what it means to be one. Within this category of kids, there are the following groups:
- Traditional TCKs [1]
–Children who move into another culture with parents due to a parent’s career choice - Bi/multi-cultural/ and/or bi/multi-racial children —Children born to parents from at least two cultures or races
- Children of immigrants
—Children whose parents have made a permanent move to a new country where they were not originally citizens - Children of refugees
—Children whose parents are living outside their original country or place due to unchosen circumstances such as war, violence, famine, other natural disasters - Children of minorities
—Children whose parents are from a racial or ethnic group which is not part of the majority race or ethnicity of the country in which they live. - International adoptees
—Children adopted by parents from another country other than the one of that child’s birth - “Domestic” TCKs
—Children whose parents have moved in or among various subcultures within that child’s home country.
Special note: Children are often in more than one of these circles at the same time. (e.g. A traditional TCK who is also from a minority group; a child of immigrants whose parents are from two different cultures, etc.) This helps us understand the growing complexity of the issues we face in our changing world .
Source: http://www.tckworld.com/
Is it me, or does it seem like just about 90% of the world population would fall into one or more of these groups? If so, shouldn’t we be paying a lot more attention to the issues that these children face?
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Tags: Cultural Adaptation, Cultural Assimilation, Cultural Dilemmas, Expat Families, Expatriates, Third Culture Kids
Hmm, this is a very interesting site. Well, yes, I'd have to check at least two on the list. And I appreciate the dialogue. I'm also excited to see the post about staring b/c I struggled with that a lot here 10 years ago.
Wow, I thought European cultures were adverse to staring, as well. You learn something new everyday
very insightful post.. thanks for sharing.. i had never heard the term "third culture kid"
Interesting concept! Thank you for sharing!
Keep up the great work!
Thanks!
Yup, that’s definitely me..
Black Backpacker´s last [type] ..Settling into the Backpacking Life