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Mashable SE Asia
*Thank you, Dr. Dana Watts

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What the heck is a Third Culture Kid? It's complicated, but let me explain.

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Third Culture Kids (TCKs) are people who grew up abroad throughout most, if not all, of their formative years. This can start as early as kindergarten or even as late as middle school. While there are many misconceptions surrounding the upbringing of TCKs, there are also a lot of things people who've only been born and raised in one country can't even begin to comprehend.

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Third Culture Kids: Citizens of Everywhere and Nowhere

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Third Culture Kids: Citizens of Everywhere and Nowhere

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Kate, Mayberry
BBC

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Third Culture Kids: Citizens of everywhere and nowhere

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With mounting globalisation, and workers jumping from one country to the next, where do expat kids call home?

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Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds

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Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds

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David Pollack

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In this third edition of the groundbreaking, global classic, Ruth E. Van Reken and Michael V. Pollock, son of the late original coauthor, David C. Pollock, have significantly updated what is widely recognized as The TCK Bible. Emphasis is on the modern TCK and addressing the impact of technology, cultural complexity, diversity and inclusion, and transitions. Includes new advice for parents and others for how to support TCKs as they navigate work, relationships, social settings and their own personal development. Specific updates: ● New models for identity formation ● Updated explanation of unresolved grief ● New material on "highly mobile communities" addressing the needs of people who stay put while a community around them moves rapidly ● Revamped Section III allowing listeners to more easily find what is relevant to them as Adult TCKs, parents, counselors, employers, spouses, administrators, etc. ● New "stages and needs" tool that will help families and organizations identify and meet needs ● Greater emphasis on tools for educators as they grapple with demographic shifts in the classroom

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third culture kids: growing up among worlds

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Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, Third Edition

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Download or stream Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, Third Edition by David C. Pollock. Get 50% off this audiobook at the AudiobooksNow online audio book store and download or stream it right to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

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Rachel Jones

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finding home: third culture kids in the world

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Finding Home: Third Culture Kids in the World

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Finding Home: Third Culture Kids in the World [Jones, Rachel] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Finding Home: Third Culture Kids in the World

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Misunderstood: The impact of growing up overseas in the 21st Century 

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Misunderstood: The impact of growing up overseas in the 21st Century 

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Tanya Crossman

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misunderstood: the impact of growing up overseas in the 21st century

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family & relationships / life stages / adolescence

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family & relationships/life stages - adolescence

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resilience (personality trait) in children

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third culture kids; expat families; global families; tcks; living abroad; expatriate life

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family & relationships / life stages / adolescence

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family & relationships/life stages - adolescence

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Misunderstood: The impact of growing up overseas in the 21st century

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Misunderstood: The impact of growing up overseas in the 21st century [Crossman, Tanya] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Misunderstood: The impact of growing up overseas in the 21st century

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University of Puget Sound

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I don't belong to a place, I belong to a group of people.

- Donna Musil

What is a Third Culture Kid (TCK)?

Today, the most common definition of a TCK is

... an individual who, having spent a significant part of the development years in a culture other than the parents' culture, develops a sense of relationship to all of the cultures while not having a full ownership in any. Elements from each culture are incorporated into the life experience, but the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar experience.

- Pollock and Van Reken

There are many different names used for TCKs such as "biz kids" (whose parents worked with international business), "military/army brats" (whose parents served in the military abroad), "MKs" or "missionary kids" (kids of missionary parents), "diplomatic kids" (whose parents served in the foreign service), and many other names including "global nomads" and "transient people."

What are some characteristics of TCKs?

TCKs are extremely diverse. TCKs are able to experience an array of benefits from having had the opportunity to begin traveling at a young age. However, one question TCKs often find difficult answering is " Where are you from?" with multiple variables including their parents' origin, where they were born, the places they have lived, where their relatives live, their parents' current location, and possibly additional factors playing a role in where they feel most at home. TCKs hold distinct relationships with many cultures, and more often than not they feel more connected to the host culture than to their parents' culture.

Because TCKs travel regularly, many of them have problems developing intimate relationships; instead they tend to create an emotional distance from others to lessen the pain that may come with future separation. Often TCKs find a sense of belonging in relationships rather than geographical location, and relate best to others like themselves. In the end, TCKs get a feeling of belonging from being around people who had similar experiences, such as other TCKs and Adults, International Students, Immigrants and "Outsiders" as well as Cross Cultural Kids and Adults.

How do we support TCKs at Puget Sound?

Here at Puget Sound we encourage TCKs to enroll as we find them to be a huge asset not only to our community but to our student body as well. We also invite TCKs who enroll at Puget Sound to join our I-Connect Program so that we can provide a greater support network on campus as well as a great understanding of their unique needs.

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I don't belong to a place, I belong to a group of people. - Donna Musil Today, the most common definition of a TCK is ... an individual who, having spent a significant part of the development years in a culture other than the parents' culture, develops a sense of relationship to all of the cultures while not having a full ownership in any.

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Finding a Place for Third Culture Kids in the Culture

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Finding a Place for Third Culture Kids in the Culture

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Noor Brara
New York Times

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In his new HBO series, the filmmaker Luca Guadagnino revisits a timeless yet timely question: What does it mean to be from everywhere and nowhere at once?

Jack Dylan Grazer in Veneto, Italy, in Luca Guadagnino's "We Are Who We Are." Credit... Yannis Drakoulidis/HBO

On a blanched, sun-baked afternoon, two teenagers, a boy and a girl, wander into a grocery store to pick up lunch. Fraser is a recent transplant from New York, and Britney a new friend who has lived her life evenly between South Korea, Germany and Italy, though you'd never know it by her American drawl or the pop music she blares through her headphones. To the viewer, the scene presents like quotidian life in the United States - but for the fact that it takes place in Veneto, Italy, on a military base where families work and attend school, their children running off every evening to dance and drink by the cerulean sea alongside their friends from town with whom they scheme and share secrets, whispered in fluent Italian. In a few years, many of them will ready themselves for a move - to another home on another military base in another country, with a supermarket configured to look exactly like this one. "They look the same so you don't feel lost," Britney tells Fraser. "Do you ever feel lost?" he asks. She shrugs.

The idea that a sense of belonging is challenged by the straddling of cultures is hardly a revelation; nearly every maker whose back story was shaped by more than one place has arrived at some version of that conclusion. But rarely do we hear the stories of so-called "third-culture kids" and the private, nomadic worlds in which they are raised, marked by a certain shared disorientation and the sense that home is everywhere and nowhere at once. It's for this reason that the Italian director Luca Guadagnino will attempt to unpack one iteration of this experience - through Fraser, Britney and their five best friends - in " We Are Who We Are," an eight-part series premiering this September on HBO that pulls back the curtain on the experiences of the children of military families abroad and other third-culture kids like them, whose place in the world now feels both more tenuous and important than ever before.

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Jordan Kristine Seamón and Grazer in "We Are Who We Are." Credit... Yannis Drakoulidis/HBO

Coined by the American sociologist Ruth Useem in the 1950s, the term " third-culture kid " was conceived for expatriate children who spend their formative years overseas, shaped by the multicultural, peripatetic spheres of their parents, many of whom are diplomats, military members or others working in foreign service. They relocate frequently and enroll their children in international schools, exposing them to miniature realms cultivated by peers from nations far and wide, whose customs, languages and mores coalesce, birthing hybrid or "third" cultures that are globe-spanning, diverse, highly empathic and oftentimes difficult to translate outside these environments.

Perhaps because this life is characteristically slippery, it's struggled to become clearly defined in the culture, even in fictional stories, suited though they are to crafting imagined worlds. Ironically, while most TCKs cite the ability to relate to nearly everyone, their own narratives suffer a relatability problem, perhaps because their youthful experiences, relegated wholly to remembrance and recollection, are in many ways too singular and strange-seeming to others. Still, there are characters that have managed to catch hold, the complexities of their placelessness often anchored to more universal quandaries: Elio Perlman, played by Timothée Chalamet in Guadagnino's 2017 film adaptation of André Aciman's " Call Me By Your Name " is one such example; a trilingual adolescent reared in the university orbit between the United States and Northern Italy - his father is from the former, his mother the latter - he casts his American and European identities on and off with a kind of begrudging ease, lording them over his father's visiting graduate student, Oliver (Armie Hammer), on some days, while on others he's consumed by a sort of languid estrangement from everyone around him, retreating into himself. Though the story is propelled forward by the unfurling of muffled desire and fleeting boyhood, it's hard not to notice how a defined cultural identity - or lack thereof - inevitably underscores Elio's coming-of-age, as he pursues different versions of himself in different relationships: in English with Oliver, in French and Italian with his girlfriend Marzia and in all three with his parents, code-switching in what feels like a futile attempt to stitch together facets of a fractured self.

Timothée Chalamet in "Call Me By Your Name." Credit... Sony Pictures Classics, via Associated Press

Of course, how Elio conveys this onscreen may have more to do with Guadagnino himself, who has long constructed his complex, layered characters partly in his own image. "That's me," he says immediately over Zoom in August, when I read off Useem's definition of athird-culture kid. "I was born in Palermo, and moved almost right away to Ethiopia. I spent the first six years of my life there. Then we went to Rome, then Palermo again and then back to Rome, then to Milan and to London. I feel the most important aspect of being a filmmaker is to be really aware of what forms you as much as what's in front of you. So, I always try to keep in mind what I could have been experiencing during my youth in all these places through the prism of these complex stories I tell."

If asked, any third-culture kid will tell you that shape-shifting - rousing one of the many selves stacked within you to best suit the place you're in - becomes a necessary survival skill, a sort of feigned fitting in that allows you to relate something of yourself to nearly everyone you meet. As someone raised between New York and the diplobrat bubble of an international school in New Delhi, India, where friends would come and go every few years, I became adept at calibrating myself to findthe points of connection between us, able to relate equally to someone from South Korea, Iceland, Japan, Italy or Jamaica, in many cases more so than to other Indian Americans whose lives, at least on paper, read closer to my own. And because ourstories couldn't be gleaned from our outward appearances, accents or possessions, we all came humble to the table, open and permeable and ready to barter the surfaces of our souls: our learnings, our languages, our cuisines, our clothing.

While all of this contributed, certainly, to feeling perennially adrift (according to multiple studies by Useem and others, much as they may try, adult TCKs never wholly repatriate culturally), it blotted the sensation of feeling like we'd "grown up at an angle to everywhere and everyone," as the writer Pico Iyer - of Indian parentage, raised between England and California, who now lives between the latter and Japan - told me during a recent phone conversation. In his own work, Iyer has spent a lifetime examining this feeling and others that result from cultural crisscrossing, both out in the world in " Video Night in Kathmandu,"a 1988 collection of essays which examines the unlikely cultural points at which East and West meet across Asia - Japan's affinity for baseball, say, or the Philippines' obsession with country and western music - and then in " The Global Soul," written twelve years later, which studied, conversely, the crisscrossings that take place within. Iyer found peace in accepting that belonging had little to do with geography, but rather a collection of personal interests, ideas and relationships accumulated over time. "Growing up with three cultures around or inside me, I felt that I could define myself by my passions, not my passport," he says. "In some ways, I would never be Indian or English or Californian, and that was quite freeing, though people may always define me by my skin color or accent. But also, because I didn't have that external way of defining myself, I had to be really rigorous and directed in grounding myself internally, through my values and loyalties and to the people I hold closest to me."

Others have found freedom in the same, becoming natural shape-shifters whose value systems transcend borders to instill a sense of home. The most famous example is probably Barack Obama, whose 1995 memoir," Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, "whirls through Jakarta, Seattle, Kenya and Hawaii with unsparing analysis of what it means to belong to multiple worlds and therefore to none of them, but to find, later, that refuge lies in the space between all of them - and in the ability to unite not just your worlds but others', too. As much as the third-culture experience is clouded by the fog of liminality, it's informed also by the ability to define oneself on one's own terms, difficult as that endeavor may be in the face of increasing scrutiny toward globalism and those formed by it.

The presentation of this - dazzling and dressed up - is what makes "We Are Who We Are"thrilling to watch. Its characters come alive in the blur, filling in one another's spaces and dancing over questions of home, while bragging about where they've been, their exchanges captured in shimmering, slow-motion interludes scored to original music, the silky synth pop of Blood Orange. And while the show takes place in the run-up to the 2016 election, its politics remain a quiet drumbeat in the offing, its spotlight focused wholly on all the ways by which differences are, in fact, paradoxically harmonious when everyone is otherized. In fashioning themselves to evade traditional modes of identification (culturally, politically, sexually and through gender), these characters build their own castles in the sky. "When you grow up this way, there is a feeling of being lost, but to be lost is also to be open," Guadagnino says. "It reminds us of our empathy, and of what we share if we were only to try and find it."

This may be the ultimate lesson of third-culture kids' stories. In the late Kobe Bryant 's 2018 book "The Mamba Mentality," which offers a glimpse into his childhood years in Reggio Emilia, Italy, he discusses the importance of having learned how to navigate a new culture with compassion. Though he eventually settled down in America - becoming not only one of its sports heroes, butone of its cultural icons, too - he continued to make frequent trips back to Italy, where he'd speak the sort of Italian that boasted a native European bravado, a casual swagger that rode along his perfect pronunciation. And when he died in Los Angeles, he died in Reggio Emilia, too, where they mourned a version of him America never knew, except for the Italian names he had chosen for his daughters: Gianna, Natalia, Bianka and Capri.

Of course, not all depictions of third-culture life have been so uplifting. Occasionally, too, these charactersare written to be spoofed and ridiculed, assigned snobbish attitudes and superiority complexes. Without proper context, it can appear as if they need too much and require a sort of excess to keep them perpetually moving, making it hard to divorce third-culture life from that of overt wealth and privilege, or an indifference to local customs. In the 2018 Netflix show " You," the model-actress Hari Nef portrays Blythe, a third-culture poet prodigy whose parents worked for the state department and raised her between Papua New Guinea and Tokyo. When the central character, Beck - a timid, hopeful writer played by Elizabeth Lail - meets her, she looks her up and down and smirks before asking, "Jersey, right?" and runs off to take a call from her grandparents in Swedish. In the third-culture writer Stephanie LaCava's forthcoming novel, " The Superrationals," which dives into the torrid waters of the international art world, the protagonist Mathilde, raised between the U.S. and France, is ridiculed relentlessly by "the girls," a catty clique of gallery insiders who dislike her for all the ways in which she's different ("What is that name?" they ask. "Is she even French? She's so pretentious"). And in 2010's"Sidewalks," a razor-sharp collection of essays about the failures of finding home in lived experiences and written ones alike, Valeria Luiselli - the author of the 2019 novel "Lost Children Archive" and the daughter of a Mexican diplomat formed by an upbringing in Costa Rica, South Korea, India and South Africa - sarcastically comments on her own selection of Mexico as "her country," driven mostly by cynicism and "a sort of spiritual laziness than an authentic act of faith." She admits she's never felt true allegiance to anywhere she's lived, knowing only that she must continue roaming.

But all these stories, of course, predate the precarious state we find ourselves in today, when borders are clamping down in domino effect, driven in part by the Covid-19 pandemic, itself a case against globalism and the speed at which interconnectedness can burn it all down, imperiling not only our ability to travel but limiting those who find selfhood in marginal spaces, whose stories underscore the urgency of seeing the world as one. And while internationalism deserves examination, what we stand to lose without it is our ability to lift one another up, to find each other in the in-between. One might look to Kamala Harris - who, born to Jamaican and Indian parents, often discusses her ability to consider multiple sides - or Obama before her. Such voices, with their chameleonic stories and sensibilities, help locate the light in the dark.

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Finding a Place for Third-Culture Kids in the Culture

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In his new HBO series, the filmmaker Luca Guadagnino revisits a timeless yet timely question: What does it mean to be from everywhere and nowhere at once? On a blanched, sun-baked afternoon, two teenagers, a boy and a girl, wander into a grocery store to pick up lunch.

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Nina Sichel

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You may not notice her. At first glance, she may appear perfectly comfortable - these kids are chameleons, adept at taking on the colors of each new environment they are plunged into. She looks and sounds like the other kids in her class; she wears the same kind of clothes, has the same gadgetry, carries the same backpack.

Perhaps she comes to your attention because she is having adjustment problems, like any other new kid on the block. She isn't making friends easily, doesn't join group activities. She is withdrawn, uncooperative, angry or disruptive. Or maybe she's been diagnosed and labeled, but it doesn't seem to explain everything.

She doesn't want to talk about it. She doesn't know where to begin.

What you don't know and can't see is that she is a Third Culture Kid (TCK) - a child who has moved in and out of foreign countries as her parents have transferred around the world. Born into one culture, raised among others, her identity is most closely aligned with others raised like her, moving internationally. She is not "from" anywhere. Although she was born here, for her this country is another foreign assignment. Feeling out of place is only the tip of the iceberg. She is struggling through yet another adaptation, another culture shock, another freefall.

TCKs are the children of international business people, global educators, diplomats, missionaries, the military - anyone whose family has relocated overseas because of a job placement. The children attend international or host-country schools, or are sent to boarding schools, or are home-schooled. They are supposed to be coming home - even if they've never lived here, even if they've only been back on furlough. Often, this is their most difficult relocation. There are nearly a million in international schools around the world; others in Department of Defense schools on international military bases; countless numbers returned to their passport countries of origin.

Rebecca Grappo, an educational consultant who specializes in the placement of these children, says there are three basic things all children need: belonging, recognition and connection. For TCKs, these basic needs are ripped away with each move. Powerless in the decision to relocate, their many losses are often not acknowledged even by their own parents, and the main problem is unspoken, unrecognized, shunted aside.

It looks like depression, but it's not. This is the face of TCK grief.

And, according to Ruth Van Reken, unresolved grief is the most urgent mental health issue facing TCKs - the children as well as the adults they will become.

Herself a TCK, Ruth Van Reken has spent a lifetime writing and advocating and teaching about the psychological impact of an internationally mobile childhood. Along with the many benefits come challenges that must be faced with each move the child makes. She states, "The issue is that transition always involves loss, no matter how good the next phase will be. Loss always engenders grief and the greater you have loved a situation or place or people, the greater the grief."

The layers of loss run deep: Friends, community, pets. Family, toys, language. Weather, food, culture. Loss of identity. Loss of a place of comfort, stability, a safe and predictable world. Home.

These children are losing the worlds they love, over and over. They cycle through the stages of grief each time they move - or they don't, and push it down, submerge it, only to have it bubble up later in life, unexplained.

The grief of children is often invisible. They are told they will adapt, they are resilient. They are told they'll get over missing that friend, they'll get another pet, they'll have a nicer room in the new house. Their family is rushed; they don't have time to mourn their losses.

And they are children, and don't know how to express what they are feeling.

Some mental health professionals call it trauma.

Kathleen Gilbert has researched grief among TCKs, and writes, "Losses that are not successfully resolved in childhood have an increased likelihood of recurring in adulthood... For TCKs, questions about who they are, what they are, where they are from, what and who they can trust are examples of existential losses with which they must cope. And the way in which they process these losses will change, or may even wait until long after their childhood."

So when she comes to you, don't ask her where she's from, or what's troubling her. Ask her where she's lived. Ask her what she's left behind. Open doors. And just listen. Give her the time and space and permission she needs to remember and to mourn. She has a story - many stories. And she needs and deserves to be heard, and to be healed, and to be whole.

Read more posts by Nina Sichel on Third Culture Kids (TCKs)

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Nina Sichel is co-editor of the collections Writing Out of Limbo: International Childhoods, Global Nomads and Third Culture Kids (2011) and Unrooted Childhoods: Memoirs of Growing Up Global (2004). She leads memoir-writing workshops in the Washington, DC area and continues to collect stories and research about international and cross-cultural childhoods. She can be reached at nsichel@yahoo.com.

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The trouble with third culture kids | Children's Mental Health Network

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Morning Zen Guest Blog Post - Nina Sichel ~ You may not notice her. At first glance, she may appear perfectly comfortable - these kids are chameleons, adept at taking on the colors of each new environment they are plunged into. She looks and sounds like the other kids in her class...

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Denizen

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If you hate being asked "Where are you from?," chances are, you're a Third Culture Kid. You're a global nomad, an international traveler, a wanderlust. Denizen was created for you.

Formally defined, TCKs are people who have spent a portion of their formative childhood years (0-18) in a culture different than their parents'. Most TCKs will return to their parents' home country at some point in their lives, undergoing repatriation. TCKs tend to develop their identities while living abroad, thus blending their "home" culture with the culture of the world around them. People who have attended international schools, who are children of diplomats, "military brats," or children of missionaries are just a few examples of TCKs.

In their ground breaking book, Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing up Among Worlds authors David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken write that a "TCK builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the TCK's life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar background."

TCKs are, quite literally, citizens of the world. They are hard to define and are made of an infinite amount of experiences. The bottom line is, whether or not you fit into the formal definition of a Third Culture Kid, if you think you're a TCK, then this community will welcome you with open arms.

Explore Denizen by reading personal essays, studies on relationships, interviews with successful Third Culture Kids, or the article that started it all.

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If you hate being asked "Where are you from?," chances are, you're a Third Culture Kid. You're a global nomad, an international traveler, a wanderlust. Denizen was created for you. Formally defined, TCKs are people who have spent a portion of their formative childhood years (0-18) in a culture different than their parents'.

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Third Culture Kids: The impact of growing up in a globalized world

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Third Culture Kids: The impact of growing up in a globalized world

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Ruth Van Reken

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Third Culture Kids: the impact of growing up in a globalized world | Ruth Van Reken | TEDxINSEAD

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Vicky Schdeva

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M'KIS - Mont'Kiara International School

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Third Culture Kids | Growing Up Global | Short Documentary

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Ndéla Faye
The Guardian

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Am I rootless, or am I free? 'Third culture kids' like me make it up as we go along | Ndéla Faye

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When you mother is from Finland, your father from Senegal, and you live in neither, your identity becomes a matter of choice

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The Benefits of Being a Third Culture Kid - A Reality  Check 

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The Benefits of Being a Third Culture Kid - A Reality  Check 

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Aetna

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The benefits of being a third culture kid | Aetna International

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What does it mean to be a Third Culture Kid (TCK)? Aetna International explores the benefits and challenges of being a third culture kid, asking real TCKs about their experiences. What do they think of the assumptions people make when speaking about expat children and international families?

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Foreign Service Youth Foundation

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Most Foreign Service kids can be classified as Third-Culture Kids (TCKs) or Global Nomads. The term TCK was coined by sociologist Ruth Hill Useem in the 1960s and refers to people who spent significant parts of their childhoods away from their parents' homeland.

Rather than identifying fully with the culture of their passport country or one or more host countries, they integrate aspects of each and create their own "third culture." Later, the term "global nomad" was introduced as an alternate descriptor by Norma McCaig, founder of Global Nomads International.

Belonging Everywhere and Nowhere

While every third-culture kid is unique, TCKs tend to have a lot in common with each other. They often have a chameleon-like ability to fit into other cultures but find it difficult to answer the question, "Where are you from?"

By growing up in multiple cultures they never fully experience any one culture, which can cause them to feel left out, especially in their passport country, which is supposed to feel like home. This contributes to the phenomenon of reverse culture shock and helps to explain why TCKs often build social networks among themselves.

Frequent "goodbyes" and years spent living as relative outsiders in a kaleidoscope of cultures contributes to another commonality among many TCKs - they enjoy especially tight-knit nuclear families but struggle to form and sustain long-term, in-depth relationships throughout their lives.

Nonetheless, most TCKs agree that the pros far outweigh the cons of an internationally mobile childhood.

TCK and Re-entry Resources

TCKs have been thoroughly studied and analyzed over the past 40 years. Some Foreign Service youth (and their parents) may find comfort in learning more about the TCK experience and recognizing that they are not alone.

Leagues of TCKs have come before them and translated their multi-cultural childhoods into successful and happy adulthoods.

Panel discussion at the American Foreign Service Association discussing raising children in the Foreign Service.

Neither Here Nor There is a 35 minute documentary that explores cultural identity for people who have grown up in places other than their home, known as Third Culture Kids.

A Nicholas Brealey Publishing bestseller! Third culture kids (TCK) (children of expatriates, missionaries, military personnel, and others who live outside their passport country) have unique issues with personal development and identity. David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken bring to light the emotional and psychological realities that come with the TCK journey.

Parenting styles in general, and of third culture kids in particular, have changed dramatically, prompting this timely and comprehensive re-examination of the challenges of parenting abroad.

In this groundbreaking collection, writers from around the world address issues of language acquisition and identity formation, childhood mobility and adaptation, memory and grief, and the artist's struggle to articulate the experience of growing up global. And, woven like a thread through the entire collection, runs the individual's search for belonging and a place called home. This book provides a major leap in understanding what it's like to grow up among worlds. It is invaluable reading for the new global age.

Over 200 million people currently live abroad; more than 50 million are temporary residents, intending to return to their country of origin. Misunderstood explores the impact international life can have on the children of such families - while they live overseas, when they return, and as they mature into adults. Similarities in their shared experiences (regardless of the different countries in which they have lived) create a safe space of comfort and understanding. Tanya Crossman introduces this space - the Third Culture - through the personal stories of hundreds of individuals. Whether you grew up overseas, are raising children overseas, or know a family living abroad, Misunderstood will equip you with insights into the international experience, along with practical suggestions for how to offer meaningful care and support.

This book provides educators with viable and inspired ways to meet the particular needs of children in transition. This ground-breaking volume provides a model of transition education that can be used in all elementary schools public independent, and international - and is easily integrated into an existing curriculum. The authors have chosen quality children's literature as a springboard for learning about transitions and have developed excellent follow-up activities to use in the classroom and creative ideas for cross-curricular connections.

This book takes you on a journey as seen through the innocent eyes of a young girl growing up abroad, always moving and traveling, as she is exposed to the hidden messages of the world from her birth until you see her off to college at age 19.

This is a fascinating account of the extraordinary life adventures enjoyed by the Todd sisters, starting in the mid-1940s. Their father was among first African Americans in the U. S. Foreign Service and his postings took the family all over the world. The theme is joyfully written that even when elephants come charging head-on, with faith and confidence, all things are possible!

These essays explore the rootlessness and grief as well as the unexpected moments of humor and joy that are a part of living between two worlds. Between Worlds charts a journey between the cultures of East and West, the comfort of being surrounded by loved ones and familiar places, and the loneliness of not belonging.

Expat Teen Talk is specifically targeted to Expatriate Teenagers and those who work with this unique population. The book addresses the needs and different challenges that Expat Teens face throughout their lives (in particular, their adolescent years), and enables them to learn more about and understand that most of what they are going thought and what they feel as a result of constant change in their lives is 'normal' and shared by many other Expat Teens worldwide.

Author Lois Bushong, a licensed marriage and family therapist delves into this previously, unexplored world of how to effectively counsel clients raised outside of their parents home culture. The book is filled with practical examples, interesting stories, tips, charts, resources, theories, techniques, and discussion questions for further study.

Safe Passage maps the challenges and charts a course for individuals, schools, and accrediting bodies to navigate them. Although primarily focusing on international schools, the hopeful message within this book reaches into any school, university, or organization where human beings come and go.

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Foreign Service Youth Foundation - Third Culture Kids (TCKs)

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Most Foreign Service kids can be classified as Third-Culture Kids (TCKs) or Global Nomads. The term TCK was coined by sociologist Ruth Hill Useem in the 1960s and refers to people who spent significant parts of their childhoods away from their parents' homeland.

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How Schools Can Better Support Third Culture Kids

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How Schools Can Better Support Third Culture Kids

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Angela Yang-Handy
NAIS

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How Schools Can Better Support Third Culture Kids

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25 Books for Expat Kids TCKS & Cross Cultural Kids of All Ages

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25 Books for Expat Kids TCKS & Cross Cultural Kids of All Ages

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The Piri-Piri Lexicon

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Always on the look-out for books that children can identify with, I have put together this collection of volumes for our kids. All of these books are suitable for third-culture kids, cross-culture kids, expat children, highly mobile families and immigrant families. They all deal with issues these children, who move often, or who juggle several cultures, have encountered. From pronouncing your name wrong, moving (again), learning a new language to repatriating, these books are great talking points to show our children they are not the only ones in these situations.

A note about the languages: whenever books are available in other languages, I will link to that language. For example, books available in French will be linked to in the FR store.

1. B at Home

Emma is only ten years old but has already moved twice. Now, her parents are telling her the family is moving again. She's furious, sad, nervous, and a little excited, all at the same time. Unsure of how to tackle these conflicting emotions, she turns to B, her faithful teddy bear. While trying to come to terms with the challenges of another move, what Emma really wants is just to 'be at home'. As the journeys of Emma and B unfold, home changes once again, but home also begins to take on a new meaning that Emma can take with her wherever she goes.
This is a great book for older children and teenagers to come to terms with the concepts of home and the global lifestyle. It also contains some very useful discussion points for adults.
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

2. Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match

Marisol McDonald has flaming red hair and nut-brown skin. Polka dots and stripes are her favourite combination. She prefers peanut butter and jelly burritos in her lunch box. And don't even think of asking her to choose one or the other activity at recess —she'll just be a soccer playing pirate princess, thank you very much. To Marisol McDonald, these seemingly mismatched things make perfect sense together. But they don't to other people.
A lovely book (for children aged 4 to 8) about not being able to put everyone in boxes, being multicultural and how being different is fun.
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

3. My Name is Yoon

Yoon's name means "shining wisdom," and when she writes it in Korean, it looks happy, like dancing figures. But her father tells her that she must learn to write it in English. In English, all the lines and circles stand alone, which is just how Yoon feels in the United States. Yoon isn't sure that she wants to be YOON.
An inspiring and touching story for children aged 4 to 8 about finding one's place in a new country.
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

4. Yoko Writes her Name

The book tells a story familiar to many, how difficult it is to be the new kid on the block, the new student in the school, or the student who can speak English but doesn't know how to write it.
This is a great story for very young kids (from about 3 or 4) about being new and what we can learn from each other.
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

5. Homesick

Homesick is a biography of a third culture kid. It tells a story of grief, loneliness and sense of belonging from the eyes of a 10-year-old girl. It is funny yet very emotional. It is aimed at 8-12-year-olds.
Buy the book and audiobook here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

6. Maps

This book of maps is a visual feast for readers of all ages, with lavishly drawn illustrations from the incomparable Mizielinskis. It features not only borders, cities, rivers, and peaks, but also places of historical and cultural interest, eminent personalities, iconic animals and plants, cultural events, and many more fascinating facts associated with every region of our planet. The only downside for us is that not all countries are represented. Portugal is not one of the detailed maps!
Suitable for all and available in many languages. There is also an accompanying workbook.
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

While her friends are spending their summers having pool parties and sleepovers, twelve-year-old Carolina - Carol - is spending hers in the middle of the New Mexico desert, helping her parents move the grandfather she's never met into a home for people with dementia. At first, Carol avoids prickly Grandpa Serge. But as the summer wears on and the heat bears down, Carol finds herself drawn to him, fascinated by the crazy stories he tells her about a healing tree, a green-glass lake, and the bees that will bring back the rain and end a hundred years of drought. As the thin line between magic and reality starts to blur, Carol must decide for herself what is possible - and what it means to be true to her roots. Readers who dream that there's something more out there will be enchanted by this captivating novel of family, renewal, and discovering the wonder of the world.
Highly mobile children often spend their summers slightly differently than others. This is a perfect book many will relate to about finding your roots and wanderlust. It is suitable from 10.
Buy the book and audiobook here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

8. Persepolis

Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.
A stunning black and white graphic novel for teenagers about the author's own experience in Iran as a child and being sent to study in Austria later on.
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

9. Everywhere, Wonder

In this heartfelt picture book, readers are taken on a stunning journey into the imagination of a young boy―who explores everything from the pyramids of Egypt to a dusty footprint on the moon―and then back out again to the wonderful world right in front of him. From a lost balloon to an endless road, there are stories to discover, to dream about, and to share.
For children aged 3 to 6 years old, this very sweet picture book encourages young minds to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary, and creatively share their stories with others.
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

10. A Ball, A Book and the Butterflies

For many children, the first year of an international move is filled with new experiences and feelings. Sometimes they can be difficult to explain. The book follows the story of a boy and teachers and parents can use the child's questions to help track and help their own child's transition period. This is a very unique book for school-aged children with different editions (e.g. Germany, Thailand or general) and full of tips and questions for parents and teachers.
Buy the book here.

Ira confronts several emotions when he learns his best friend Reggie is moving away. There are many books about moving for children but this one is a simple and sweet one from the point of view of the person who is not the one moving. For smaller children (4-8), it would make a reassuring gift for someone left behind.
Buy the book here: US, U.K.

12. Slurping Soup and Other Confusions

Slurping Soup and other confusions: true stories and activities to help third culture kids during transition Slurping Soup And Other Confusions is a collection of twenty-three real life stories from third culture kids. Each story is followed by a related activity. The activities are suitable for three to twelve-year-olds and include brainstorming, problem-solving, party planning, family tree, quirky word games etc. The book aims to help children cope with the challenges of living internationally. The stories explore: - Adapting to new environments -Who am I? Where do I belong? - Home and family adjustment - Cultural differences - Friendship change
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

13. Swirly

Lila isn't just like her yellow friends or her blue cousins, so she feels as though she doesn't fit in anywhere. But when she meets another swirly kid and his swirly mom, she finds out that she does belong somewhere . . . with a very special swirly Someone.
This book, for the 4-8 year-olds explores the ups and downs of being a TCK and the emotional ride of fitting in.
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

14. The Name Jar

Being the new kid in school is hard enough, but what about when nobody can pronounce your name? Having just moved from Korea, Unhei is anxious that American kids will like her. So instead of introducing herself on the first day of school, she tells the class that she will choose a name by the following week. Her new classmates are fascinated by this no-name girl and decide to help out by filling a glass jar with names for her to pick from. But while Unhei practices being a Suzy, Laura, or Amanda, one of her classmates comes to her neighbourhood and discovers her real name and its special meaning. On the day of her name choosing, the name jar has mysteriously disappeared. Encouraged by her new friends, Unhei chooses her own Korean name and helps everyone pronounce it- Yoon-Hey.
This is a beautiful book about crossing cultures and adaptation into a new country for 3-7year-olds.
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

15. Here I am

Newly arrived from their faraway homeland, a boy and his family enter into the lights, noise, and traffic of a busy American city in this dazzling wordless picture book. The language is unfamiliar. Food, habits, games, and gestures are puzzling. The boy clings tightly to his special keepsake from home and wonders how he will find his way. How will he once again become the happy, confident kid he used to be? Walk in his shoes as he takes the first tentative steps toward discovering joy in his new world.
A poignant and affirming book for children between 5 and 10 years old.
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

16. One Green Apple

Farah feels alone, even when surrounded by her classmates. She listens and nods but doesn't speak. It's hard being the new kid in school, especially when you're from another country and don't know the language. Then, on a field trip to an apple orchard, Farah discovers there are lots of things that sound the same as they did at home, from dogs crunching their food to the ripple of friendly laughter. As she helps the class make apple cider, Farah connects with the other students and begins to feel that she belongs.
A poignant read for young children (4-7 years old) about what it feels like to be different.
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

17. Grandfather's Journey

Home becomes elusive in this story about immigration and acculturation, pieced together through old pictures and salvaged family tales. Both the narrator and his grandfather long to return to Japan, but when they do, they feel anonymous and confused: "The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other." I am sure many of our children can relate.
Short, easy to read, it is a great book for little ones (from 4 years old).
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

When Mei Mei moves to the United States from Hong Kong, she initially can't stand hearing English. She sees it as a lonely language. She is also afraid she will forget her mother tongue.
This is a lovely book about the different stages of learning a new language when moving to a new country. It is suitable from 4 years old.
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

19. Tea with Milk

From the same author as Grandfather's Journey, this story is a moving tribute to discovering where home is. At home in San Francisco, May speaks Japanese and the family eats rice and miso soup and drinks green tea. When she visits her friends' homes, she eats fried chicken and spaghetti. May plans someday to go to college and live in an apartment of her own. But when her family moves back to Japan, she soon feels lost and homesick for America. In Japan everyone calls her by her Japanese name, Masako. She has to wear kimonos and sit on the floor. Poor May is sure that she will never feel at home in this country. Eventually May is expected to marry and a matchmaker is hired. Outraged at the thought, May sets out to find her own way in the big city of Osaka. Suitable from 4 years old.
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

20. Home At Last

Ana Patino is adjusting well to her new life in the United States, but her mother is having a difficult time because she doesn't speak English. When Ana's baby brother falls ill, Mama tries to get help, but no one can understand her. Now convinced of the need to learn the native language, Mama agrees to take English lessons. As her knowledge of the English language grows, so does her sense of confidence and belonging. A lovely tale about mother-daughter relationship and the importance of language learning for children from 6 years old.
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

21. No English

"No English" is all that Blanca, the new girl from Argentina, says. She spends her time drawing pictures instead of doing class work and that hardly seems fair to second-grader Diane. One misunderstanding follows another until Diane begins to see how afraid Blanca must feel in their classroom. Their teacher, Mrs. Bertram, helps her class understand that "different" is just different, not strange or weird. She encourages them to learn about Blanca's home country. Diane must make things right, but how will she do that when they don't speak the same language?
A beautiful story about cross-cultural friendship for children from 5 years old.
Buy the book here: US. (I couldn't find it anywhere else at a reasonable price unfortunately.)

22. Pixie's Holidays

Pixie, a little donkey who moved to a new house, returns to her old home for the first time. Oh no! She does not recognize the place. Worse still, her friend Lila does not remember her. Pixie is very sad, but still finds a way to have a wonderful vacation.
This book is also available in French, Spanish, Portuguese (and maybe more languages).
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

23. Sammy's Next Move

Sammy's Next Move is a wonderful story about a snail named Sammy who lives around the world with his parents. He is a 'third culture kid', TCK or global nomad. He often moves to new countries and has to change schools and make new friends. Sammy experiences the feelings and thoughts common to children in similar situations. Sammy is a snail and so he carries his home with him wherever he goes, just as a third culture kid does by knowing that home is where their heart is!
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

24. The Mission of Detective Mike

Mike is unsettled. He knows that something odd is happening at home because his parents are whispering all the time. But, being a detective, Mike is quickly on the case. He enlists his friend Ikem to help him get to the bottom of the mystery. Mike and his family are moving to another country, making him confused and fearful. What will happen to his toys, his room, his friends, his house? How will he learn to talk in a new language and how will he ever make new friends? As his mission gathers momentum, Mike and Ikem find the answers to his questions and solutions to his problems.
Buy the book here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

25. Amber Brown is not a Crayon

Amber Brown and Justin Daniels are best friends. They've known each other for practically forever, sit next to each other in class, help each other with homework, and always stick up for each other. Justin never says things like, "Amber Brown is not a crayon." Amber never says, "Justin Time." They're a great team-until disaster strikes. Justin has to move away, and now the best friends are fighting. Will they be able to work it out before it's too late?
A great colourful book suitable from 7 years old about moving and protecting yourself in case of sadness.
Buy the book and audiobook here: US, U.K., DE, FR.

Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade. Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Gene Luen Yang, New Kid is a timely, honest graphic novel about starting over at a new school where diversity is low and the struggle to fit in is real.

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25 books for cross-cultural children of all ages

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Always on the look-out for books that children can identify with, I have put together this collection of volumes for our kids. All of these books are suitable for third-culture kids, cross-culture kids, expat children, highly mobile families and immigrant families. They all deal with issues these children, who move often, or who juggle several cultures, have encountered.

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Growing Book By Book

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Do you love to discover new books? Do you want to diversify your bookshelf? Then, this is the post for you! Today, we are sharing some newer multicultural picture books and resources.
MULTICULTURAL PICTURE BOOKS- NEW FINDS
Full Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Some of the titles were sent to me by publishers. All opinions expressed are my own.

My favorite resource from 2016 was Give Your Child the World by Jamie C. Martin. It's full of books for each geographic region and it's divided by age level. It was a great resource for selecting books for our Around the World Family Dinner Book Club. I HIGHLY recommend it!

Let's start with one that the preschool crowd will love. All Aboard for the Bobo Road by Stephen Davies takes us to West Africa for a cultural taste of the land. Super bright illustrations will capture lots of interest in studying the pictures.

I love to learn right alongside my kids. Esquivel! Space-Age Sound Artist by Susan Wood was a book that taught us all about someone we didn't know. Juan García Esquivel was a musical innovator. We enjoyed finding some Youtube videos recommended in the back of the book to hear some of his music too.

The Barefoot Book of Children by Strickland, DePalma, and Dean is a celebration of children around the world. We learn about foods, hobbies, jobs, and even baths around this planet.

Kids need to see themselves in books. That is just what Green Pants does. Children of color can see themselves just being a kid having everyday kid dilemmas. My kids thought this one was so funny and could totally relate to Jameson's tough decision.

Along the same lines of everyday kids seeing themselves in books and you are looking for an early chapter book for newer readers, check out Juana & Lucas.

Adventures in Asian Art by Sue DiCicco takes us on a tour of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. This book works well for many ages. There are more detailed sections for older readers included.

New Year by Rich Lo is the story of a young boy adjusting to a new city and school. As the Chinese New Year approaches, the boy begins to see how his heritage can integrate with his new life in Los Angeles.

One of my very favorites is The Water Princess by Susan Verde. My kids were amazed and educated that something we take for granted is scarce to so many.

It would be remiss of me not to share the newest Caldecott winner for this list. Radiant Child by Javaka Steptoe is the story of the artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat. For children who love to look and make art, this book will be of particular interest to them. Like Basquiat, Steptoe used pieces of New York city to create the art you see in the book. Basquiat had a challenging life and his struggles may be a bit much for younger kids to grapple with, so I prefer this one for a bit older child.

Ok, I have lots more I could share. But, my peers have lots of ideas too. So keep reading below for even more great books to check out.

Multicultural Children's Book Day takes place every January. It's a day filled with great resources that you can find by searching #ReadYourWorld or visit the official Multicultural Children's Book Day website.

PRINTABLE BOOKLIST
Grab a printable booklist of the titles above.

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New Multicultural Titles to Add to Your Shelf

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Do you love to discover new books? Do you want to diversify your bookshelf? Then, this is the post for you! Today, we are sharing some newer multicultural picture books and resources. MULTICULTURAL PICTURE BOOKS- NEW FINDS Full Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Some of the titles were sent to me by publishers.

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*Also see our How To Be An Antiracist ISS Padlet for many more books titles for our students and ourselves

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*Also see our How To Be An Antiracist ISS Padlet for many more books titles for our students and ourselves

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Curator: Laura Benson (Titles to add/suggest - lbenson@iss.edu)

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Authentic Voices of TCKS

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So Where's Home? A Film About Third Culture Kid Identity

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So Where's Home? explores the unique perspectives and identities of Third Culture Kids, people who have spent a significant portion of their childhood overseas. The purpose of this short documentary project is to understand why third culture kids struggle to answer the question of “so where’s home?” and the implications this difficulty has on personal identity.

This project was my final senior thesis project for my film & media studies minor at Georgetown University. 

Special Thanks To:
Interviewees — Rickie Koo, Victoria Perrachon, Jake Wright, Yuko Shimada, Connor Liu, Oliver Silsby, Natalie Muller, Amy Burns, Hanah Lee
Thesis Adviser — Milena Santoro
FMST Georgetown — Caetlin Benson-Allott,  Edward Clark, Bridge Waugh, Bernie Cook

To all the FMST 2012 seniors, other interviewees, friends, and family involved: thanks for all the support over the past semester.

Dedicated To David Heavy

Equipment:
- Canon 7D
- Canon EF Lens 50 mm F/1.4
- Canon EF Lens 28-135mm IS
- Zoom H4N
- Sony UWP-V1 Wireless Lav Mic Kit

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Our Own Mark Elroy - Once a Gecko, always a Gecko :)!

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Power of TCKs | Mark McElroy | TEDxYeongheungForest