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So called third culture kids (TCKs), the children and adolescents who accompany their parents on long-term overseas work assignments, often have to face life changes, cultural challenges and threats to social identity. The frequency, intensity and nature of these challenges arguably places some TCKs at heightened risk of stress-related mental health problems. Trait mindfulness, an attribute that can be enhanced through intervention, has been found to buffer against stress reactivity and common mental health problems. This study aims to explore the relationship between stress reactivity, trait mindfulness and depressive symptomatology among expatriate adolescents (TCKs) attending an international school in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Participants included 230 high school students (57% female) from 45 different nations, with a mean age of 15.5 (±1.3, 12–19). Forty one percent had lived in the UAE for 7+ years. Participants completed measures of trait mindfulness, daily life stress reactivity, and depressive symptoms (CES-D). Mean depression score was high with 68.7% of TCK participants presenting as at risk of clinical depression. Lower stress-reactivity and greater trait mindfulness were associated with lower levels of depression; furthermore, low levels of trait mindfulness partially mediated the relationship between stress reactivity and depression. Efforts that aim to reduce stress reactivity and increase mindfulness might prove especially beneficial among the TCK population.

The term Third Culture Kid (TCK) was first coined by researchers John and Ruth Useem in the 1950s. These children spend a substantial part of their childhood in countries that differ from their pas...

Based on 42 autobiographies of former Norwegian Foreign Service children, this article aims to highlight how cultural narratives of global elite migration can intersect with local family emotion-regulation practices and enter into the body of a Third Culture Kid’s experience. It asks how a mismatch between emotions as culturally expected and emotions as experienced affected them. Narrative analysis showed how the children interpreted cultural symbols into feeling-rules that created an emotional estrangement towards their caregivers as well as within themselves.

Post-colonial literature from India needs to move away from the tendency to focus on just a British Indian framework and broaden its perspective to include wider frameworks including the Luso-Indian framework. This original ‘ghost story’ is just one example of Goan Gothic literature that has emerged from the influence of four hundred and fifty-one years of the Portuguese colonial experience in Goa, South India. The author is a Goan migrant and Adult Third Culture Kid, currently living in Goa. This story has been adapted and embellished, based on one that was told to the author by her aunt in Goa over a decade ago.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the various antecedents that impact the development of cultural intelligence (CQ) among students. The study also explores how growing up as a third culture kid (TCK) or a monoculture kid (MCK) impacts the relationship between the antecedents and CQ. Design/methodology/approach Using data from 307 students consisting of both TCKs and MCKs, the authors test the direct effects and moderation model amongst the antecedents and CQ. Convenience sampling was employed to choose the participants for the study. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and administered to the students via e-mail. Findings The results indicated that short-term trips abroad, undertaking a cross-cultural management course, local culture proficiency, watching films from other cultures, language of work proficiency, having friends from other cultures and interaction with people from different nationalities had a significant effect on CQ. Practical implications This study provides a list of variables that facilitate the development of intercultural competence amongst students, which can be used as a base by academic institutions to develop various courses, classroom activities and university programs. Also, classifying students as TCKs and MCKs helps us understand which CQ antecedents are more important for which category of students. Originality/value This is one of the first studies on antecedents of CQ, which explores the impact of being a TCK or MCK on the development of students’ CQ.

The term ‘Third Culture Kid’ (TCK) is commonly used to denote children living in a host culture other than their passport culture during their developmental years. However, its meaning in relation to other terminology referring to a similar concept is a source of interest for many stakeholders. This paper opens up opportunities for further exploring and critiquing the definition of TCK, and opening this up to case studies within the context of the United Arab Emirates and more widely. It is critical to clarify the terminology in light of unprecedented levels of international migration throughout the world. This paper reviews the meaning of culture in relation to TCKs, and explores the meaning of the TCK concept as well as a number of other terms used as alternatives to TCK. A contextualization of the literature follows in relation to the researchers’ own lived experiences in the United Arab Emirates. The term TCK can be seen as part of the general stock of theoretical concepts. This paper acknowledges that it cannot catch all nuances of migrant children in the global context.

Many Third Culture Kids (TCKs) struggle to answer the commonly-asked question: Where are you from? In this autoethnographic essay, a continuation of my earlier exploration of TCK experience (Hopkins, 2015), I confront my concept of home in reference to psychological research by Jerry Burger (2011), exploring the phenomenon of adults returning “home,” to place(s) that were important in their early lives. Like Burger’s subjects, I describe my experience of returning to visit, after over two decades away, the remote village in Senegal where I spent many of my childhood years. Following Tessa Muncey’s (2010) methodological lead, I structure my account using “snapshots,” both photographic and video, of my childhood life and my return visit. These snapshots, accompanied by my narrative and analysis, illustrate elements of my concept of home such as roads, language, food, and trees. My perspective on these elements provides insight into what “home” means to me.

Nowadays, more and more writers cannot be classified according to one single nation. Whereas in Imagined Communities Anderson describes the development of nations and national belongings, in Third Culture Kid (TCK) discourse a central theme is the concept of not belonging to one specific nation or culture (“NatioNILism”). TCKs are individuals who were raised moving from one country to the next due to their parents’ career choices. Not having had a fixed home while growing up, rather than accepting classifications according to nations and cultures, many TCKs prefer to embrace diversity. Antje Rauwerda argues that the fiction of adult TCKs comprises typical features that reflect the consequences of a displaced international childhood and accordingly coins the new literary classification Third Culture Literature. Whereas Rauwerda exclusively analyses novels written by TCKs, this article examines whether the effects of hypermobile international childhoods can be detected in the works of TCK songwriters. By analysing not only the song lyrics of contemporary musicians such as Haikaa, Sinkane and Tanita Tikaram but also the artists’ views regarding issues such as belonging, identity and transience, it will be shown that in the scholarly realm the TCK lens can be expanded to song texts too.

In this paper, I argue for a need to expand our understanding of the role that self-help plays in the constitution of identities. Using the example of the Third Culture Kid (TCK) industry, I argue that self-help acts as a space of biopower through its role in managing the emotional experience of having been globally mobile as a child. To do this, the paper looks at how the TCK, as a subject, is surfaced as comfort in relation to the ascribed grief and insecurity of identity that is associated with childhood global mobility. Data are derived from a multi-sited ethnography, including a narrative analysis of TCK literature, reader discussions, participant observation at a TCK event and an online survey. The argument contributes to scholarly critiques of self-help by examining processes of production and consumption of TCK subjectivity enacted through the TCK industry. Thereby, the paper contends that in researching self-help we need a wider understanding of its production and consumption, how people are persuaded to use it, and how they respond to ideas presented within it.

This article recounts the story of Jack’s primary and secondary schooling career across several countries and eventual relocation and tertiary education in Victoria, Australia. His narrative is described here as an antipodean educational trajectory. What is meant by antipodean education is contrasted to the long established concept of the third culture kid (TCK). There are overlaps in these concepts. The argument is made, however, that Jack’s travelling and multiple education cultural mix gives him a different sense of himself that is not fully accounted for in the TCK literature. Global movement of people for employment and other reasons such as politics, governmental or service professions, continues today, Taking children with working and mobile parents has long been characterised as creating third culture kids who do not belong to either originating or hosting societies. Today, however, it is less the case that this can be adequately described as travel ‘out from’ and ‘back to’ the geo-political centres. This changing socio-cultural reality means re-examining what kinds of educational opportunities and experiences children are exposed to and the effects of these on young people.

BACKGROUND: Current attempts to culturally tailor human factors training in aviation segregates cultural identities based on geopolitical, passport nationality, and is therefore poorly suited for (adult) ‘Third Culture Kids’ (TCKs) whose cross-cultural upbringing has led to the development of multicultural individual identities that do not reflect their passport nationalities. In this study, respondents’ self-categorization of personal cultural identity, as opposed to passport nationality, was used to determine whether there were cultural differences in airline pilots’ behaviors.METHOD: A survey with items imported from established scales was distributed to pilots of an international airline to measure pilots’ work values, flight management attitudes, and cultural dimensions, with respondents segregated into Western, TCK, or Asian cultural groups.RESULTS: TCKs shared similar work values with Westerners, were similarly individualistic, had comparable preference for shallow command gradients, were similarly pragmatic in self-evaluation of performance under stress, and both had lower dependency and preference for rules and procedures. TCKs scored in the middle between Westerners and Asians in automation preference attitudes, and on the cultural dimensions of power distance and uncertainty avoidance. TCKs did not share any similarities with Asians at all.DISCUSSION: The results show that TCKs were neither assimilated into a mainstream culture, nor culturally “middle of the pack” as may be expected from their “East meets West” backgrounds. Having identified TCK pilots’ unique values, attitudes, and dimensions, practical implications include changing training design to better suit TCKs’ cultural characteristics and the adaptation of airline management to cater for TCKs’ work values.Chan WT-K, Harris D. Third-culture kid pilots and multi-cultural identity effects on pilots’ attitudes. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2019; 90(12):1026–1033.

Increased globalization has given opportunities for families to relocate around the world often with ease. The product of such moves are Third Culture Kids (TCKs), whom Pollock and Van Reken (1999. The third culture kid experience: Growing up among worlds. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press) describe as individuals who have spent their developmental years in a culture outside their own. Literature suggests that these individuals are often faced with an identity crisis from not being able to fully integrate in both their ‘home’ and their adopted countries. This article explores the extent to which sport influences TCKs in forming a national identity. The researcher interviewed TCKs who have spent a period of their lives in Japan and investigated their views on national identity, with specific reference to sport. The interviews revealed that, in order to create a sense of belonging to a specific country, TCKs use cultural identifiers such as participation in sport and spectatorship of national sport ...

The identity of Third Culture Kids, individuals who have spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside their parents’ culture, is nothing new in today's society. In fact, the number of Third Culture Kids is becoming more prevalent as the world moves to a global community where families travel and live all around the world. This thesis includes a comparative study between Ann Cotrell and Ruth Useem’s previous research from 20 years ago, focused on Third Culture Kids born to American parents, and a new recent survey that features the identity of Adult Third Culture Kids born from Bicultural and Multicultural parents concerning their educational and career choices. Moreover, it will also analyze whether these decisions have changed over the past 20 years, and try to determine if patterns have changed. The importance of the research proposed in this paper can be seen in how this global population is interacting with society as adults. Has the overseas experience been positive? Was it a difficult transition back to home country? How did it affect education and career choices? Experts themselves underline the limited amount of research and the need for more in-depth research across different platforms. The survey will focus on aspects such as current job, social life, economic status, and cultural identification; and whether they feel their experience had a positive or negative impact on their adult lives. It can be extrapolated from this study that Adult Third Culture Kids’ education and career choices are heavily influenced by their time growing up abroad and can be seen to have an international or service aspect. Furthermore, Third Culture Kids’ identity and schooling play a stronger role in their educational and career choices than their Bi/Multicultural background. This may be due basically to the shared traits of identity, educational, and career choices that TCKs share while growing up abroad than having parents from different nationalities and cultures., Máster Propio en "International Education" (EN31)

Globalisation is creating new perceptions of social and cultural spaces as well as complex and diverse pictures of migration flows. This leads to changes in expressions of culture, identity, and belonging and thus the role of heritage today. I argue that common or dominant notions of heritage cannot accommodate these new cultural identities-in-flux created by and acting in a transplanetary networked and culturally deterritorialized world. To support my arguments, I will introduce ‘Third Culture Kids’ or ‘global nomads’, defined as a particular type of migrant community whose cultural identities are characterised high patterns of global mobility during childhood. My research focus on the uses and meaning of cultural heritage among this onward migrant community, and it reveals that these global nomads both use common forms of heritage as a cultural capital to crisscross cultures, and designate places of mobility, like airports, to recall collective memories as people on the move. These results pose additional questions to the traditional use of heritage, and suggest others visions of heritage today, as people’s cultural identities turn to be now more characterised by mobility, cultural flux, and belonging to horizontal networks.

Purpose – The “adult third culture kid” (ATCK) is an individual who has spent significant periods of childhood living outside his or her parents’ culture(s). Research is needed to identify specific experiential variables responsible for the development of components of cross-cultural competencies (CC) in ATCKs. The goal of this study is to gain insight into these relationships and provide a foundation for continuing investigation by examining how early international experience and personality variables impact CC in ATCKs. Specifically, the study examines how four components of early international experience and two characteristics of stable CC impact three dynamic characteristics of CC. Design/methodology/approach – Study participants (159) had spent their childhood years living in one or more foreign countries. In all, 54 percent of the sample was women, and the average age was 22 (SD=1.52). None of the subjects had any international work experience, allowing us to look at the impact of non-work experience without the confounding effect found in other research of this type. Data were collected at the beginning and end of a three-week period. Findings – There are five important predictors of CC in ATCKs: variety of early international experience (number of different countries lived in), language diversity (the number of languages they speak), family diversity (the number of different ethnicities in their family's background), and the personality trait of openness to experience. Research limitations/implications – The generalizability of study findings is limited by the nature and size of the sample. In addition, the single source sample of this study is also a limitation, as single source samples are subject to common method bias. We reduced this potential bias by using a time lag (Podsakoff et al., 2003) to create a temporal separation between the measurement of the predictors and the dependent variables, a procedural remedy suggested by Podsakoff et al. (2003). Practical implications – The practical uses for the findings of this study by human resource management (HRM) professionals are in the areas of hiring and assignment of expatriate managers. Study findings provide HRM professionals with an initial set of criteria to assist in the process of identification and training of expatriate managers. Global organizations have traditionally used training to increase the pool of effective global managers. This study provides initial evidence that identification of individuals with early international experiences should prove a useful addition to the process of selecting candidates for foreign assignment. Social implications – The practical uses for the findings of this study by HRM professionals are in the areas of hiring and assignment of expatriate managers. Study findings provide HRM professionals with an initial set of criteria to assist in the process of identification and training of expatriate managers. Global organizations have traditionally used training to increase the pool of effective global managers. This study provides initial evidence that identification of individuals with early international experiences should prove a useful addition to the process of selecting candidates for foreign assignment. Originality/value – To the best of our knowledge this is one of the first studies to empirically examine ATCKs and provides a starting point for future researchers in this area. Obtaining a sample of ATCKs is extremely challenging.

This study investigates the extent to which transition programs are offered to students at international secondary schools. Components of professional development, orientation and departure programs, and transition support teams were examined. Participants included school administrators at 11 international schools across five continents. Findings suggest that systematic transition interventions are underutilized to support Third Culture Kids, and suggest a lack of awareness among administrators about the issue of transitional problems associated with international mobility.

The study sought to explore whether levels of exposure (as measured by number of years spent abroad and number of countries lived in) predicted levels of prejudice (as measured by the Quick Discrimination Index and the Social Dominance Orientation Scale) in Adult Third Culture Kids (ATCKs), as well as whether there was a significant difference in levels of prejudice between American ATCKs and non-American ATCKs. One hundred and ninety-six ATCKs completed a web-based survey including measures of discrimination and social dominance, as well as demographic information. Only number of countries lived in significantly predicted scores on the Affective subscale of the Quick Discrimination Index (QDI). American ATCKs reported significantly higher levels of prejudice than non-American ATCKs on the Cognitive subscale of the QDI and the Social Dominance Orientation scale (SDO).

This essay discusses creative writing and critical pedagogical insights gleaned from teaching Leila Aboulela’s fiction in the context of other authors across cultures at the college level in the USA and the UAE, specifically at the University of Missouri-Columbia and the American University of Sharjah. It situates Aboulela’s largely transnational fiction in relation to Africana womanism, the third culture kid phenomenon and its use as a tool for religious and cultural competency in an increasingly polarized post 9/11 world. It also addresses Aboulela’s transgressive stance against the boundaries of gender, class, race, body-ability, and religion, among other factors, in a colonial and postcolonial setting. Works by Aboulela, which are considered in this essay, include “Majed” from her collection Colored Lights (2001) and the novels The Translator (1999), Minaret (2005), and Lyrics Alley (2010).

Films depict the world and convey perspectives on it. The same can be said of the extensively well distributed James Bond film series which has been critically acclaimed and successful for the last several decades from “Dr. No” (1962) to “Spectre” (2015). In 2012, it celebrated its 50 th anniversary and can be considered an especially influential cultural medium and a transmitter of cultural practices and values. Because the plots are set in various regions of the globe, the spectator is not only confronted with unfamiliar cultural mores, but is also shown how a travelling secret agent (who is successful when interacting with foreign cultural realities so as to achieve the goals of his secret mission) uses his abilities. Indeed, from our perspective, certain questions arise as to whether this really occurs on the basis of James Bond’s intercultural competence. Using as a starting point for discussion the concept of intercultural competence, this article will critically analyze James Bond’s cultural contacts, their filmic representation and their implications for legions of fans throughout the world, while examining the possibilities of them picking-up a few intercultural tips and tricks at the same time.

The study examined relations between a cross-cultural geographically mobile childhood and adult cultural identity, attachment to cross-cultural identities (CCIs) and self-esteem. CCIs are loosely defined identities (e.g., third culture kids [TCKs], military brats, missionary kids) that describe some individuals' childhood cross-cultural experience. The 475 participants spent at least two years before age 18 in a culture different from their parents' and completed an online survey including childhood cross-cultural experiences, Cultural Homelessness Criteria, Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, and Self Label Identity Measure (SLIM) that captured strength of affirmation, belonging and commitment to any CCI. Cultural homelessness (CH) was related to lower self-esteem; higher SLIM scores was related to higher self-esteem and lower CH. TCKs reported lower self-esteem than non-TCKs and older participants experienced less CH and higher self-esteem. SLIM scores buffered the CH-self-esteem relationship, whereas a TCK CCI and having more cross-culturally experienced social networks did not.

INTRODUCTIONIn Japan, there were 44,701 cross-border marriages in 2006-the highest number ever on record. Currently, one out of every 16 marriages in Japan is a cross-border marriage. This increase in cross-border marriages has also led to an increase in the number of CCKs (CrossCultural Kids) of these marriages. The number of CCKs in Japan more than doubled over a period of 20 years, from 10,022 in 1987 to 23,463 in 2006. It is clear, then, that Japan is witnessing a growth in the number of cross-border marriages and CCKs, but is Japan truly making progress in terms of multiculturalism? In this paper, I will examine Japanese sociocultural systems in the context of CCKs with Japanese and Brazilian parents for the following two reasons.First, from a historical perspective, the social acceptance of CCKs born from cross-border marriages can be seen as an index of the degree to which multiculturalism is progressing (Jansson, 1981). Therefore, this research will reveal whether the growing consensus that multiculturalism lags far behind despite the trend towards increased multiethnicity in Japan could be supported or otherwise.Secondly, Brazilians are the biggest ethnic group among newcomers in Japan. The total number of Brazilians registered as residents in Japan in 2006 was 312,979, accounting for 15.0% of all registered foreign residents, and ranking third next to Koreans (28.7%) and Chinese (26.9%) (The Immigration Bureau, 2007). The increase in the number of Brazilian residents in Japan accompanies the increase in the number of the marriage between Japanese and Brazilian and CCKs of these marriages.Most Brazilians living in Japan are of Japanese descent. As a result, there are a large number of couples comprising Japanese and Japanese-Brazilian among the cross-border marriages between Japanese and Brazilian. Cottrell (1990) stated that within the definition of crossborder or cross-national marriages, a cross-border marriage is not necessarily an interethnic marriage, but also includes marriages between two people of the same ethnic group but with different nationalities, and that a cross-border marriage is not necessarily an intercultural marriage. In the case of marriages between Japanese and Japanese-Brazilians, however, even if the marriage is within a single ethnic group, the social and cultural backgrounds of the parties socialized in each country differ, albeit to varying degrees. In this paper, I will look at marriages between Japanese and Japanese-Brazilians as cross-border marriages and marriages between two people with different nationalities and cultural backgrounds, and examine the conditions involving CCKs of these marriages. When considering CCKs with Japanese and Brazilian parents, rather than focusing on the contrasts between Brazilian and Japanese culture, I will investigate the path to multiculturalism. I hope that this research will contribute to the construction of a multicultural society.1LITERATURE REVIEWThe concept of CCK first came about in the literature on TCK (Third Culture Kid) in the United States. R. H. Useem coined the term TCK after spending a year in India in the early 1950s. Initially they used the term "third culture" to refer to the process of learning how to relate to another culture (Useem et al., 1963); in time they started to refer to children who accompany their parents into a different culture as TCK (Pollok, 2008). Later, the term TCK came to have an even broader application, referring in general to the children growing up in an interstitial culture, or culture between cultures (Pollok and Van Reken, 2002).Even among these children growing up in culture between cultures, however, there are many different circumstances in which these cultures intersect; for example, there are cases where children stay temporarily in the host society, with the understanding that they will return to their home country some day, in addition to children of cross-border marriages and children of immigrants (Cottrell, 2007). …

This qualitative study explored how women growing up in multiple cultures navigate their way through emerging adulthood and develop a sense of identity. A third culture kid (TCK) is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside of the parents’ culture. An interview with guiding questions was conducted with eight women between the ages of 18 and 23, and the interviews were analysed utilising the feminist, voice-centred method known as the Listening Guide (Brown & Gilligan, 1992). The following themes emerged through analysis: (a) the disruption of transition, (b) the stability of spirituality, (c) the pervasiveness of “different,” (d) the silencing of voice, (e) the sense of belonging, and (f) the autobiographers as women.

This study used a multi-method case study to explore the central paradox of global nomadism, that cultural hybrids seem at home in any cultural context, but feel at home only among others with a similar cultural history. The Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) was used to provide a psychometric profile of Lena, an Adult Third Culture Kid. Lena presented an atypical and theoretically impossible IDI profile, simultaneously ethnocentric, with issues in Minimization, yet clearly ethnorelative, with no issue evident on the AA or EM scales. A series of in-depth interviews were conducted to explore these IDI results, their implications for the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), which is the theoretical basis for the IDI, and whether they helped to explain the paradox of global nomadism. The interviews helped Lena to realise that although she was surrounded by people from different national backgrounds throughout her life, their shared cultural experience was stronger than their surface differences, resulting in a Minimization orientation of ‘beneath our superficial differences, people are basically all the same’.

The focus of this article is the experience of the growing numbers of children who, as one of the consequences of increasing globalisation, move between cultures internationally as a result of their parents' occupations. Beginning with a review of research relating to transition, the article goes on to describe a study at an international school in Thailand which, it is argued, is similar in terms of the globally‐mobile nature of its student population to many other such schools worldwide. Using a computer‐based questionnaire, the views of primary‐age children were explored in relation to various dimensions of the transition process. Findings highlighted the importance of recognising the impact of such moves on young children, and of schools being aware of the different stages of transition that children might be experiencing so that appropriate support may be provided.

The goal of this article is to increase awareness and understanding of third culture kids (TCKs).-children who spend all or part of their child/teen years outside their passport country because of a parent's employment abroad. They are introduced as one example of Cross Cultural Kid (CCK) and compared with other children who are socialized in an international context-immigrant children and children of cross-national couples. The origin and meaning of the term TCK, now generally applied to all children of expatriate parents, is described.Variations in TCK childhood experiences are discussed along with overarching questions of belonging and home common to all TCKs. Difficulties associated with reentry to the passport country-grief and loss, hidden immigrant, belonging and home-are related to the need to find a meaningful group identity. American TCKs are compared with TCKs from other countries, with special attention to Japanese kikoku shijo.

The expression “Third Culture Kid” (TCK) was introduced when two social scientists, J and R Use em, travelled to India in the 1950s to study Americans deployed there predominantly as corporate, governmental, military and missionary personnel (Pollock & Van Reken, 2001). The birth of the TCK term stemmed from the apparent commonality of challenges, characteristics, perceptions and tendencies amongst the Useems’ three sons and other American children observed in India. They recognized that their children’s one year experience during their formative years, left an indelible mark on their development, whereby their sense of belonging became more “relationship-based” than “geography-based” (McLachlan, 2007, p. 235).

International schools are widely revered as institutions, which offer interstitial cultures of their own to accommodate “Third Culture Kids” of privileged migrant families. Originally established to ease transitions for internationally mobile families from one national context to the next, these schools can be viewed as cosmopolitan hubs for expatriate families — offering a standardized educational system and community, which is readily available across the globe. The term, “Third Culture Kid” is very often associated with children of expatriate families attending international schools — for the reason that these children are particularly mobile: oftentimes experiencing multiple international relocations during their formative years. The label suggests that the child stands in a “third space” between the culture of their passport country and that of the host country — whilst not necessarily feeling attached to either. In this way, TCKs have since been classified as a unique group of individuals who share a common upbringing as being “displaced and uprooted” (Malkki, 1992, p. 25). This communal “third culture” to which all TCKs are bound may be directly related to the international school global network — a space, which accepts and cultivates a culturally diverse population joined together through shared nomadic experiences.

This article is based on a multiple case study which examines the lives of a group of 11 former international school students who all attended an international school between 20 and 50 years ago. The research design was based on a review of the literature on third culture kids and adult third culture kids, covering emotional and relational issues such as sense of belonging, identity and the nature of relationships formed. Data were gathered through both postal questionnaires and indepth interviews and multi-dimensional pictures of the lives of the former international students have been generated. Links between the literature and personal experiences are explored.

'What is my identity? Although I was born in Singapore I never once had the opportunity to study in a local school and to mix with local friends. In fact I have had very few local friends because for the past seven years of primary education, I studied in a Japanese school, surrounded only by Japanese people. Naturally my spoken Japanese became slightly better than my English but, despite having a lot of Japanese friends, I still feel closer to Singapore and I'm proud to be a Singaporean. But sometimes I feel that I don't belong here because I don't speak Chinese. At times when I am with my local friends I feel that I'm a bit of a foreigner to them. I don't feel this way (like a foreigner) when I'm with my Japanese friends because I speak fluent Japanese. However, I hardly know much about the Japanese culture, so again sometimes I feel, what's my identity? Japanese? Singaporean?' A 15-year old girl placed in a special school within an international context as a result of her learning difficulties. 'The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings'. Okarkura Kazuzo

Using decaying systems wrought from the shifting tides of globalism, Léa Donnan creates cinematic elegies that question, remix and remake communal material histories as part of a wider cultural narrative. Both seductive and terrifying, Donnan retraces the movements of whales, ships and planes in relation to her personal history, a process which suggests how entangled in a multi-system global fabric we truly are. Through a series of actions and appropriations, Donnan interprets world wide systems of migration, communication and exchange as a gestural study; lace like markings on the surface of the planet.

Wobec zwiększającej się liczby ruchów ludnościowych zasadne wydaje się podejmowanie badań nad różnorakimi skutkami migracji, zarówno w sensie jed- nostkowym, jak i społecznym. Celem pracy jest wgląd w mechanizmy samoorga- nizacji polskiej rodziny emigracyjnej, z wykorzystaniem systemowej perspektywy rozumienia rodziny migracyjnej, inspirowaną podejściem S. Minuchina i takich ram teoretycznych, jak koncepcja „dzieci trzeciej kultury” R. H. Ussem oraz problemów akulturacji, roli sieci społecznego wsparcia a także psychologii miej- sca – nie-miejsca M. Augé.Dzięki zebranym metodą wywiadu zogniskowanego oraz rozmów indywidual- nych, jakościowo przeanalizowanym w grupie 48 rodziców (przy uwzględnieniu zmiennych: bliskości międzypokoleniowej, wzorców relacji zewnętrznych oraz unikatowej dla rodziny emigracyjnej zmiennej relacji z miejscem pobytu) informa- cjom przyporządkowano trzy modele funkcjonowania rodziny emigracyjnej, wyjaś- niające problemy nieefektywnych strategii akulturacyjnych na emigracji. Modele te odpowiadają rodzinom spójnym – uwikłanym – splątanym wg S. Minuchina:„rodzina-magnes” (o dużej bliskości międzypokoleniowej, wysokim poziomie lęku grupowego i spójnych wzorcach kontaktów zewnętrznych, wytwarzająca w efekcie relatywizm miejsca), „rodzina-kotwica (o niskiej bliskości międzypoko- leniowej, niespójnych wzorcach kontaktów zewnętrznych, wytwarzająca problem nieumiejscowienia oraz fatamorganę kotwicy u dzieci i separacji u rodziców) oraz „rodzina-repelent” (o niskiej bliskości międzypokoleniowej, niespójnych wzorcach kontaktów zewnętrznych, wytwarzająca alienację u matki i asymilację u córki).

Svenska Third Culture Kid (Tredje Kultur Barn) påverkas vardagligen utav deraserfarenheter av att leva i olika världar. När TCKs återvänder till Sverige söker de eftersvar på vem de är och var de tillhör. Denna uppsats undersöker effekterna av att växaupp i olika kulturer i relation till identitet och tillhörighet. Syftet är att förstå hur TCKsuppfattar sig själva och deras identitet och hur detta påverkar deras känsla avtillhörighet. Den här uppsatsen är baserad på multipla fallstudier som undersökerlivshistorier från elva TCKs som alla levt utomlands och nu har återvänt till Sverige.Studien är baserad på befintlig litteratur om TCKs och Vuxna Tredje Kultur Barn(ATCKs), där vi sedan behandlar problem som känsla av tillhörighet och identitet, därvi diskuterar nationalism, hemmet, traditioner och språket. Första-hands informationsamlades ihop dels genom ett frågeformulär och dels genom att semi-struktureradedjupintervjuer utfördes. Sedan länkades tillgänglig litteratur och TCKs’ personligaerfarenheter ihop och utvecklades. Resultatet av vår undersökning är att tillhörighet fören TCK är att veta vem de är som en unik person och de finner en känsla av hem i derasrelation med familj och vänner snarare än en plats. Everyday lives of Swedish Third Culture Kids (TCK) are characterized by theirexperiences of living among worlds. As the Swedish TCKs return to Sweden they try tofind a sense of who they are and where they belong. This thesis examines the effects ofgrowing up among cultures in connection to identity and belonging. The purpose is tounderstand how TCKs perceive themselves and their identity and how this affects theirsense of belonging. The thesis is based on a multiple case study, which examines thelife stories of eleven TCKs who all have lived abroad and now returned to Sweden. Theresearch design was based on a review of the literature on TCKs and Adult ThirdCulture Kids (ATCKs), covering issues such as sense of belonging and identity. Withinthis context we discuss; nationalism, home, traditions and language. First hand datawere gathered through a questionnaire and in-depth semi-structured interviews wereconducted. Later links between the available literature and the personal experiences ofthe TCKs’ were developed. The result of our research is that belonging for a TCK is toknow who they are as a unique person and they find a sense of home in theirrelationships with family and friends rather than a place.

A Third Culture Kid (aka Global Nomads) came about as a title because they represent this extra culture, where they grow up away from �home� or �among worlds�