Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, Revised Edition Paperback – September 16, 2009

This is a well written book establishing informative facts, charts, characterizations, examples of situations and plights of and about people who leave their home countries for reasons (mostly work related), therefore rearing and educating their children in other countries of other hemispheres. This is an introduction of what happens to children growing outside of their Visa country and so are named 'Third Culture Kids'. These are two new labels for me. These labels are referenced many times over to keep the discussion of countries straight for the sake of us...the readers.Early in the book there is a discussion of how even our President, Barack Obama, was born in the USA (his VISA country), and though he and his mother were born in the United States of America, she chose to work for a while in the country of Indonesia, making him a Third Culture Kid, along with the fact that his biological father was born in a different Visa country, in Kenya, Africa.This topic is not just that of one topic...it expands as it becomes more integrated with mixed raced parents, and even those parents before them of mixed raced parents, thus becoming quite different for the child of several bloodline lineages. (Quite interesting!) I never really thought of this topic before as I did not know of all the involvement that it equates, so it is a powerful book (learning tool)as it discusses the journeys families take and make for/with their Third Culture Kids (TCK).I recommend this book highly for Sociology/Anthropology college classes, as well as a must for parents who are Expats, Doctors Without Borders, Military, Teachers, Missionaries, and those in other vocations who leave their Visa country to spend (how ever many) years working in another or others. The outcome of this type of lifestyle has significant advantages and disadvantages for their children. Those relating to customs which children watch and learn from in other countries, do not always realize the entire scope a child has inherited of a particular society's norms prior to being introduced or re-introduced back into the Visa country of their parents.I'll end with an example in the book.The parents of the T.C.K. had been working in very remote villages in (I believe it was in Kenya) Africa. And prior to their return to the West, the parents made sure their children would blend back into their home country so they made sure they were good with the English language, as well as with buying them updated Western attire, etc. But, regardless of rearing their children to Western life, the children stood out like sore thumbs in the airport. They received many looks from people as they picked up their suitcases from the luggage area, because as the children proceeded to retreat their luggage, the suitcase then promptly went on the top of their heads...a norm they had been brought up seeing their entire lives!So not only is this text, it has many of the other traits of T.C.K's that I mentioned at the beginning of my review.So for those of you who plan to retreat to another country in the future, you might want to read this book ahead of time!

This book is invaluable for anyone who is or cares about a third culture kid (TCK): one who has "spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents' cultures". This experience is common to children of missionaries, parents who work for international corporations, foreign service, aid organizations, educators, media representatives, military service, or whatever takes them out of their home country for an extended period of time. This TCK experience can also happen actually to children who remain in their home country but live in a different culture within it, e.g. those whose parents work on an Indian reservation in the U.S. while not being born to that culture.Many of the differences the reader would probably be aware of, such as differences in eye contact, handshaking, pointing and other mannerisms. I remember walking out of a training about Native American communication where we talked about the fact that direct eye contact can be a sign of disrespect to elders in that culture, and having a conversation with a young man who made no eye contact with me. My whole body strongly said "he's lying or hiding something" - not to be trusted. I could THINK all day long about those differences, but had to be sure to pay attention to the responses my body was having and not react based on my ignorance. The authors of this book go more deeply into the effect these differences have on relationships, self-esteem, isolation, etc. Other issues addressed are, e.g. how does one form deep attachments with those around them when they know they are always separated eventually. There is no payoff and lots of pain in forming attachments.Another example of an unforeseen difficulty certainly is education. One Finnish young man grew up in Taiwan, and chose to complete his post-secondary education and med school in Chicago. English was spoken in all of his schooling and he would have had to compete with Finnish students who had been educated in Finnish to get into med school in his home country, and didn't think he would qualify. He has realized it would be very difficult for him to EVER return to Finland to practice medicine. He does not have a medical vocabulary in Finnish and would be looked down upon by his colleagues for having trained elsewhere.Restlessness is not a small factor in the lives of TCKs as adults, regarding relationships, careers, and just living arrangements. The norm is to migrate and they would need to look very carefully to determine if it was really time to leave or rather a need to work on the relationship or job and NOT leave. The problem seems to manifest in either the extreme of needing change often, or not ever wanting change again. One woman married a man with about 8 jillion stamps on his passport, thinking they would enjoy a lifetime of travel, only to discover that he never wanted to leave the country again.This book does talk about the advantages of being a TCK also, altho some of those things are probably more well known. Obviously an increased knowledge and experience base is an advantage, along with some social skills developed from the need to meet new people. What comes up for me is that that is the person I want in a staff meeting, able to bring different perspectives. Also, a TCK often has a worldwide network of friends. TCKs of course have their own culture with other TCKs when they get together, which can be very helpful for them. The authors look at both weaknesses and strengths that develop for many TCKs and offers some helpful ideas for dealing with some of the grief and loss issues. I personally found this book to be very interesting reading whether or not the reader has a personal interest in the issue. 5 out of 5 stars.

I was on a retreat when this book was recommended to me as a TCK myself from the wife of another TCK. She said her husband really enjoyed it and when she read it it helped her learn more about him and his childhood. It has great insight and great examples, but it's not laid out like a novel and jumps about a lot. I'm an avid reader but this is a filler book for me when I don't have something I'm actively reading because of how it's arranged. I am determined to finish it because of the content. If you were a TCK or have someone in your life that is, you'll find a point of connection with this read.