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You are here: Home Family & Kids Kids Is your child a 'third culture kid'?

29/07/2003Is your child a 'third culture kid'?

Experts say that expat children are uniquely placed to develop cross-cultural and internationally mobile abilities, primarily due to their heritage as ‘third culture kids’. Aaron Gray-Block reports.

What is a third culture kid?

Dr David Pollock, author of the book “Third Culture Kids”, defines his subject as individuals who spend a large part of their developmental years in a culture other than that of their parents.

Such a background, he says, stimulates third culture kids (TCKs) to develop a relationship to all cultures, while not having full ownership of any.

Pollock – the executive director of Interaction International, an organisation which works as a catalyst and resource for the development of programs, services and publications for TCKs and internationally mobile families – says TCKs incorporate each culture into their life experience, developing a third, unique culture from the mix of two of more.

“But the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar experience,” he says.

According to Interaction International, expat parents should maximise the benefits, while minimising the challenges, to their child to ensure they fulfil their true potential.

Matthew Neigh, associate executive director of Interaction International, says TCKs can become the 21st Century, cross-cultural and internationally mobile workforce.


True cross-culturalists

Neigh, a TCK now based in Colorado Springs, says the benefits for children include their development of a three-dimensional view of the world in which media images of different countries carry greater depth.

He says TCKs have a tangible link to such images and a greater sensitivity to the world in which they live.

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