“TCKs’ roots, on the other hand, are determined by people, not place. While people often come, they never really go, remaining forever a part of a TCK.” – Eakin, 1998.
Brought up in another culture or several cultures, TCK’s feel ownership in none.
‘Third Culture Kids’ is a term coined by American Sociologist Ruth Hill Useem in the 1950’s that is often used to define – with a focus on the child’s pre-adolescence maturation – in which are introduced/located within more than three cultures.
As such, this definition is often used to classify the following developmental traits in the following upbringings which include (but are not limited to) children from military, missionary, diplomatic and business backgrounds in which they all share a common trait of having spent a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than [his/her/their] own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture’ (Eakin, 1998).
Consequently, Third Culture Kids frequently build relationships with all the host cultures they come into contact with, while not having full ownership in any (Pollock, 2017).
Throughout history, the migration of different populations has been tied closely with exchange of cultures – such as the writing of ‘Marco Polo’ which is considered to be one of the oldest examples of a TCK diary. Long before the development of international trade, all people travelled across the globe in search of a better quality of life as immigrants, creating new diasporic cultures around the world; but what for the modern day ‘Global Nomad’? (McCaig, 1984)
“Where are you from?” is no longer a simple one worded answer. It is often followed by a city or the name of a country. Where do they belong?
There is widely felt to be very clear distinctions in the pros and cons of TCK culture: Often TCK’s are believed to have a more expanded (three-dimensional) worldview and significantly higher levels of adjustment and tolerance to different cultures and people than any group of individuals in the world.
With this expansion and contact with many cultures on a micro-social level, they are able to simultaneously occupy provide vivid realities of multiculturalism – which include multiple languages, learning experiences and native speaking traditions – not often felt by others. Being exposed to various languages, learning experiences and speaking traditions including native language – undoubtedly has a positive impact upon the TCK as a result of increase in mobility during childhood. On the other hand, TKC cultures comes with it a painful awareness of the difficulty adjusting to cultures where the one culture dominates.
Elaborating further on this awareness, a TCK often forgo long periods of confused loyalties towards an embodied sense of nationality, politics, and culture that in some cases leads to long-term ‘identity crisis’.
With this in mind then, how problematic – in comparison to other acronyms such as People of Colour (POC), Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME), Black and Minority Ethnicity (BME) or Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) – is the abbreviation ‘TCK’ in the definition of the identity-confusion of a group of individuals?
But just how big Is the TCK population?
According to ‘World Expat Population Statistics’ (as of August 2013) – the term ‘Expats’ in this case is not considered to be synonymous with the TCK’s definition because, among other reasons, it is not only the children of expats who spent their developmental years with globally mobile lifestyles – as of 2013, there are 230 million expats compared to 73 million in 1960, making up 3.1% of the global population.
In regards to geographic specificity of the community the top 5 countries with the highest share of expats in their total population are believed to be Qatar, the U.A.E., Kuwait, Jordan and Singapore. Similarly, according to a 2011 online survey by Denizen – a publication targeting TCKs – found most of the 200 participants made their first move before the age of nine and had lived in an average of four countries, with most TCk’s obtaining degrees — 30% had a postgraduate qualification — and 85% competent in two or more languages.
This is an important topic to discuss based on the current political and social environment and in the conversation of social mobility, migration and immigration because we live in as the world grows ever-increasingly interconnected. One world, one heart or global village.
Topics for this ToR may include, but are not limited to:
- Identity crisis
- International and Transnational Experiences
- Political climate
- Behavioural Development
- Influence of / Exposure to Subculture(s) within developmental years
- Abandonment
- Statistics and politics of immigrants
and diaspora - Repatriation
- Reverse Cultural Shock
- Third-Wave Immigrant Children’
- Parental figure and Influence
- Cultural Ownership
- Nationality
- Native and local experiences
- Globalisation and Americanisation
- (Social) Geographic Mobility
- Mass academic mobility
- Operating Beyond borders
- Language Barriers
Do we need a new definition for TCK?
If the last definition was created in 1958, then how do we find one and create a new one which resonates with the expansion of migrant narratives hereafter.