In today's world, it is easy to take globalisation for granted. Many companies today boast employees who have grown up everywhere from New York City to Buenos Aires, are based in global offices from London to Sydney, have clients from Nairobi to New Caledonia, and have regular teleconferences while in Vancouver with consultants based in Singapore. Every working day is a cross-cultural encounter, and as a result, today's professional environment reflects the pressing need to accommodate a wide ranges of backgrounds and the inevitable challenges that come with diverse people interacting with one another.

One product of this global professional lifestyle are the children who are born and raised amidst these mixed cultural encounters and settings. While removed from the rigours of international interactions in the workplace, they face unique cultural challenges of their own through the schools they attend and the friends they make. Often, these encounters differ greatly from the cultural settings at home with their parents. As a result, these children maintain a lifestyle where they constantly migrate between diverse cultural environments at home, at school, and at social contects.

This is further complicated when their parents' career faces change and they must inevitably be uprooted and transplanted to new and unfamiliar places, where they must learn to interact in new cultural settings while simultaneously reconciling their identity with the values and experiences internalised in places previously inhabited. Sociologists and psychologists have coined the term 'third culture kid' or 'global nomad' to describe these children.

Dr. David Pollock and Dr. Ruth Van Reken, authors of the seminal book on the subject, Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds define TCK's as the following:

“A Third Culture Kid (TCK) is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents' culture. The 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.”

In their book, Pollock and Van Reken describe TCKs as resilient, adaptive, and possessing an extraordinary perspective on the world, as a result of their genuinely cross-cultural and highly mobile lifestyle during their formative years. TCKs often speak at least one language outside of their mother tongue and maintain social contact with peers of different ethnic, national, and religious backgrounds. Moreover, TCKs fundamentally hold a special and unique worldview, where they self-identify with more than one cultural background and, at the same time, do not claim to fully belong to any of them.

These characteristics translate to valuable skills and assets for future professionals. TCKs are four times more likely than non-TCKs to earn a bachelor's degree, and forty percent go ahead to earn an advanced degree. Many TCKs pursue work in education, medicine, and other professional positions, and are also likely to be self-employed as freelancers or consultants.

Multi-lingual TCKs naturally slip into international assignments, including professional positions in multinational organisations or skilled jobs in government and the military, are familiar with the process of moving and adjusting to different places, and are more likely to reach out and bridge the gap with colleagues from different backgrounds. The unique world-view and experiences that many TCKs possess present a strong advantage to many globally-minded companies and organizations.

However, many TCKs also face challenges that unfortunately manifest themselves professionally. Many TCKs are schooled in educational systems that do not translate in their passport countries. A Korean student who received her education in English while living in Malawi and Kenya, may not perform well at a university in Korea, where she needs to write papers and give oral presentations in Korean.

As a result, her professional opportunities in Korea will not be as wide as those for another Korean student who had been raised in the Korean educational system. This challenge is especially pronounced for TCKs who wish to pursue skilled professions such as medicine and law in their passport countries. Because of their highly specialized terminology, education and proficiency in the language of the passport country is essential for success. Unless TCKs receive supplemental education in these languages, they may miss out on opportunities in these areas.

Because of their highly mobile lifestyle growing up, many TCKs reach adulthood with the daunting challenge of adjusting to settling down in a particular place. Their family and friends may be based on all corners of the world and may feel compelled to visit them regularly. This may come in conflict with companies whose leave policies may not be accommodating to their need to reconnect with their loved ones.

This limitation may be exacerbated by what TCKs describe as “itchy feet”, where TCKs feel the need to see the world and resist staying in one place for too long. Companies hiring TCKs may do well to establish flexible vacation and leave policies, so that TCKs have ample opportunities to visit their faraway family and friends and ultimately become happier and more productive workers.

All in all, TCKs are a tremendous asset to today's globalized workforce. Many organizations can benefit from TCKs' abilities to build relationships with strangers from different cultures and to present unique solutions to projects in the workplace. As globalisation becomes more and more a fact of life, TCKs are a model for tomorrow's professionals.

October 2009

Erin Sinogba/Brice Royer/TCKID/ Expatica

Brice Royer founded TCKID, a non-profit community (of over 21,000 members) with the purpose of helping Third Culture Kids and Adults connect and find a sense of belonging.  His views have been featured on the BBC, ABC News and The Telegraph

Photo by smaedli, earcos, jams_123 (flickr)