The Phenomenon of the Third Culture Kid: The Identity Crisis of Moving Abroad

As the world becomes more globalized, people are now constantly on the move, traveling to many places all around the globe. A lot of them are just tourists visiting countries for short-term exploration, while more often are expats moving and settling in non-native places for a new job position or to start a new life. Within this wide expatriate community are expat families with young kids, who have never fully lived in their native country, unlike their parents. What these expat kids experience while traveling & living abroad is something so unique that it’s quite radically different from other children’s lives.

This interesting phenomenon of expat kids is called the Third Culture Kid.

The History of the Third Culture Kid term

Third Culture Kid (TCK)  is quite an abstract and wide-ranging term that’s not easily defined. To better understand it, here’s a quick history of its evolution.

The first mention of TCK can be found in the works of US sociologist Ruth Hill Useem. In the 1950s, Useem, with her husband John Useem, was working in India studying how American business people interacted with their Indian counterparts conducting business. Assuming that their subjects would experience a struggle due to a cultural divide, what they found out is that these people operated in a totally different world, which was neither like the United States (first culture) nor India (second culture), but somewhere in between these two cultures.

This “interstitial space”, Useems called “third culture.”

While conducting studies on adults, Mrs. Useem also started to observe the behaviour of the children of those expatriates. What she noticed is that these kids, despite occupying a different space of communication, like schools, experienced the same “interstitial space” as their expat parents did at work. Dr. Useem pointed out how this type of experience from expats who moved for their career was so different from those who permanently immigrated, including their children.

Out of this research, Ruth Hill Useem named the group “Third Culture Kid(s)”, and defined them as “children who accompany their parents into another society,” where they experienced cross-cultural encounters in which styles of life are created, shared, and learned by people, while they’re in the process of relating their societies to each other.  After she visited India, Dr. Useem continued to do her research on the TCK phenomenon and studied children’s relationships in schools, communities, and their relationships within these institutions. Her work proved to be very influential, and Useem’s concepts were used to develop and expand them further, especially the Third Culture Kid term itself.

One of these people was American sociologist David C. Pollack and author Ruth E. Van Reken, who in 1989 expanded Useem’s TCK concept and defined it as: “a person who has spent a significant part of his/her developmental years outside the parents’ culture. The TCK frequently builds relationships with all of the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture may be assimilated into the TCK’s life experience, the sense of belonging is (often) in relationship to others of similar background.”

This definition became seminal for describing the Third Culture Kid term, before, in 2017, Michael Pollock, the son of Davic C. Pollack, and Van Recken herself redefined the TKC again to make it more clear and easily applicable: “a traditional third culture kid is a person who spends a significant part of his/her first eighteen years of life accompanying parent(s) into a country or countries that are different from at least one parents’ passport country(ies) due to a parent’s choice of work or advanced training.”

The current definition not only allows for many researchers to accurately identify and compare how kids grow in different cross-cultural environments, like the communities of expats and immigrants, but it’s also very helpful for many expat parents to understand what their kids are going through properly or will go through, while constantly moving to different countries.

The Four Categories of TCKs

When understanding the concept of Third Culture Kid, it becomes much easier to identify which group of expat kids they fall into.

In traditional discourse, there are four categories of TCK:

Military BRATs

BRAT, in this case, is an acronym that stands for British Regiment Attached Traveler. Before the American Revolution, the British Empire would send whole families to accompany military personnel to an overseas posting. Hence, the kids would be informally named BRATs as the first TCKs.

Now the Military BRATs are referred to as any kid of different nationality, whose parent(s) are active-duty members of the armed forces and move to different military outposts, including around the world.

However, it’s important to note that not all BRATs are TCKs. To be considered a classic TCK, an expat needs to move cross-culturally, leaving their native cultural bubble. In the case of BRATs, especially from the United States, many of them move either within the borders of the country, or if the outpost is international, it’s probably going to be the same cultural bubble on a military base.

Missionary’s Kids

The most well-known and studied group in the TCK discourse is the Missionary’s Kids (MK). There are some people who think this term also applies to kids who are also missionaries themselves. While there are cases when some MKs are children themselves, it’s mostly kids whose parents are missionaries.

In the past, when people would hear about missionaries traveling across the globe, they would think of people with American and European ancestry. In modern times, the missionary group has become more diverse, with workers coming from Brazil, Nigeria, South Korea, and India becoming more prevalent in the cross-cultural process.

Foreign Service Dependents

Often referred to as Foreign Service BRATs, diplobrats, or diplomat kids, these children, whose parents work in embassies or consulates, also move frequently like military and missionary families.

Typically, diplomatic corps are reported every two to four years, and as seniority is earned, the postings might lengthen.

These diplomat children are often living in “the Expat Bubble,” and most of them are usually isolated from the local places as a means of protecting them from dangerous situations, and also being used as pawns for international relations purposes. Though they still may explore and interact with the local culture of a posting.

International Business Kids

The Biz Kids’ or BKs’ parents usually work for multinational corporations or move cross-culturally, opening businesses of their own. They frequently relocate around the world due to their parents’ expertise being required in various offices of the corporation. These children often live in a community with other expatriates, attend international schools, and rarely form relationships outside of their expatriate group.

Like other TCKs, the Biz Kids expect to return to their parents’ country of origin, i.e., home country. This group receives little attention and support from the international community. While they may have more financial resources than other TKCs, they don’t have enough emotional and practical support when they return home, while other expat kids do.

Along with four traditional TCK groups, two additional subgroups exist in the space between cultures.

Domestic TCKs

One of the larger of these subgroups is these kids who don’t need passports to cross cultures internationally. They move within the borders of their home country from one distinct cultural group to another distinct one.

A great example is India, where moving to a new state within one nation feels like settling in a separate country that has its own cultural attributes.

Educational TCKs

This new group of the TCK family has been on the rise recently and can be referred to as two different groups.

The first one is whose parents work in educational institutions all around the world. Even though they might be similar to the traditional groups, researchers have started to separate them from the rest in the TCK family branch.

The second Educational TCK group is kids from local cultures who attend an international school in the city, hence straddling different worlds because of their education. Sometimes these schools, to which this type of group would attend, are called “TCK factories.” Despite these kids experiencing the intermediate space between different cultures – the Third Culture – they, for the most part, are not considered TCKs. This is due to the lack of high mobility of their parents’ choice of jobs or education, which is an indication of the TCK branches.

Cross-Cultural Kids

Even though Third Culture Kids is an identifiable group, there is another much larger one to which TCKs belong called Cross-Cultural Kids (CCKs).

Ruth Van Reken classified Cross-Cultural Kids as a group in which many other subsets, including TCKs, grow up surrounded by various cultural environments for any reason. Reken noticed that many kids had a TCK cross-cultural experience, but felt they were excluded from Third Cultural Kids group because of the definition.

The groups that fall under CCK are:

• TCKs
• Mult-ethnic & multi-racial children
• Children of refugees
• Children of immigrants
• Children of minorities
• International adoptees
• Children of borderlands
• Others

By creating a larger group of cross-cultural experiences, this gives many children an opportunity to connect due to their similar issues of identity and belonging, including TCKs.

Summing up everything, the Third Culture Kids are a subset of a bigger group (Cross-Cultural Kids) who experience cross-cultural practices between different cultures, yet their particular practices involve traveling with their working-expat parents around the globe, from country to country.

As with many expats, TCKs are no exceptions when it comes to facing obstacles while moving and traveling abroad. As has been mentioned before, TCK is a unique group compared to their peers with their own set of problems. However, there are many advantages and positive effects to regularly moving from country to country that become beneficial for children’s formative years.

TCKs’ Pros

Becoming Multilingual

Traveling around the world gives many expat kids an introduction to a variety of languages. It gives a unique opportunity to learn as many languages as possible, especially being surrounded by local people, who probably cannot speak the expats’ native mother tongue. The more languages you know not only gives you a lot of job opportunities in the linguistic sphere, but also allows you to build new connections with many people.

An Open-Minded Worldview

Unfortunately, as comfortable and stable as it is for many people to live in their own cultural bubble, their perception towards people from different cultures can become biased and, sadly, even bigoted. For TCKs, this isn’t a big problem, since they’re always living inside new cultures all the time. This type of cross-cultural process helps them to develop human empathy towards many groups of people who might differ from them. TCKs’ mind evolves into being able to incorporate various perspectives into their worldview, widening their intellectual capabilities.

Great Interpersonal Skills

As expat kids introduce each other to different cultures, they’re able to grow their interpersonal skills too. By being placed into unfamiliar situations, it forces TCKs to develop communicative abilities and use them in their daily lives, talking either with family members or friends from their community. A pretty useful skill, especially in the digital age when almost everyone loses communication with each other.

An Adaptable Traveler

Another job position that TCKs might apply for is a travel agent guide, because of their wide-ranging knowledge of traveling. They spend so much time in airports, public transports, and foreign cities that these kids become very adaptable to many unfamiliar surroundings, and thus can easily get around them. A great ability for any traveler to not get stressed under any circumstances when traveling around.

Creating Unique Memories

Difference might cause a mental challenge, but it also can give a one-of-a-kind life experience that countless people don’t or will never have. These unique memories of traveling as a kid expat around the world can give solace to isolation, but also encouragement to express your story to the public. It’s the great stories that people are attracted to, and TCKs have tons of them.

TCKs’ Cons

Difficulties with Identification

Forming your identity is an essential aspect during people’s formative years as kids, which will develop into adulthood. Unfortunately, for many TCKs, this is a major struggle. Not only are they very distant from their native homes, but because these kids are always introduced to new and a lot of cultural practices, it can create complexities in forming a concrete identity. As much as modern societies accept multiple identifications within one person, it’s still not as widespread as TCKs wish it to be.

Handling Loneliness

There’s a popular saying about Third Culture Kids that they are both “everywhere and nowhere.” The perpetual movement from place to place never allows expat kids to fully settle in one culture. Consequently, it gives them the feeling of loneliness due to not being able to establish any connections with any location at all. It creates a sense of being always ousted from societies, and experiencing isolation as global citizens, which might be a challenge.

• Immigrant Mental Health Challenges

Constant Impermanence

Lots of people might feel jealous of TCKs because of their privilege to always travel to new countries. However, there’s a major downside to it. The perpetuating migration can make many expat kids feel very restless and impatient, while feeling detached from new places, because they’re always prepared to move again. This constant movement can cause both identity crises and loneliness in TCKs.

Relationship Losses

Attachment to cultures and places is not only what TCKs lose, but also lots of relationships that were built before. The people with whom expat kids create connections at schools or communities suddenly become distant. When they move to a new location, they have to re-establish new friendships which, sadly, might be lost again. Although social media nowadays can resolve these issues very efficiently.

Nescience of Home Culture

Another troubling aspect of TCKs is the rupture from their home country and its culture. In the current mode of society, people continue to talk about the importance of knowing and understanding their native heritage. This creates so much pressure for expat kids that it becomes too stressful to bear and spikes the identity crisis further from constant traveling. Though this issue may not be troubling for all TCKs, it’s still prevalent and must be carefully discussed with children.

TCKs at the current moment might not be a well-known group among the masses in societies, but in the future, this will radically change and shift everyone’s perception.

Globalization, which grows even more rapidly now, makes cross-cultural life a prevailing fashion in the daily lives of ordinary people. As an example, the students of a school district in North Kansas City, MO, speak at least 118 different languages, and this is just the beginning.

TCKs are continuing to grow as one of the largest societal groups in the world, and it’s currently estimated that there are now 230 million people who identify themselves as TCKs.

Third Culture Kids are becoming the 5th largest nation on the planet, and it might soon dominate higher placements and become the prototype for other future citizens, especially in the career & education sphere, since studies have shown that 44% of TKCs earn an advanced degree by the age of 22.

The Third Culture Kid concept might be a complicated and information-overloaded concept that, on first glance, isn’t that easy to mentally grasp. However, taking your time and comprehending it will provide an important insight into the ongoing change in our society, especially when studying TCKs.

This article can become your starting point to research this topic and connect with people online who identify as TCKs. It’s by building these connections that we’re able to empathise with each other and lend a hand when one of us is facing troubles, especially abroad.

A new piece about the TCK phenomenon is just one part of a larger international community that helps us understand the world we’re living in. Babylon Radio’s article will give you even more information on how to deal with your mental health as an expat, while also providing valuable advice on moving to a specific country.

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