When understanding culture, heritage, and society around us, most people assume that everyone fits into a cultural bracket of religion, birth place, or current hometown.
However one culture that I failed to recognise is ‘Third Culture Kids’ a term created in the early 1950s by American sociologist and anthropologist Ruth Hill Useem. Third Culture Kids (TCK) are children who build up their own cultural identity from spending a significant amount of their developmental years outside their parents culture. By integrating elements of the cultures they have experienced and their own birth culture, there is a construction of a third culture, making it hard for Third Culture Kids to define their single nationality.
Sometimes the local cultural mirror reflects that children are clear foreigners, neither physically resembling the dominant culture nor sharing the traditions or beliefs and values held in the deeper part of that surrounding culture. Other times, however, they may be ‘hidden immigrants’- physically resembling those around them, but not sharing the cultural knowledge of the local culture. The hidden immigrants have a less empathetic response from the local community as they are unable to recognise that although the child looks the same, it doesn’t feel like an integrated part of the community.
Whilst being a Third Culture Kid could be perceived as adventurous and romantic, it’s enviable that Third Culture Kids struggle with self identification, being unable to single themselves to a particular culture or nationality, perceiving themselves as an ‘outsider’.
Shantanu Banerji 22, Cardiff University considers himself a Third Culture Kid. Although originally born in India, his father’s company meant that his immediate family were able to live in many countries all over the world. Shantanu has lived by himself in England for the past two years, a decision made through his university and career choice. He carries a very strong American accent after living there since 2005 so it would be easy for people meeting him for the first time to assume he is of American nationality. However Shan has also lived in India, Monaco, Australia, America and London. When I asked him if he could define himself to one nationality he jokes he has the nationality of a ‘bird’, he ‘flew before he walked’ and sorts his ‘friends by continents’.
‘It’s never bothered me being a third culture kid, especially now at 22 years old as I’ve seen the world and can make up my own mind about where I want to settle. For example, now my parents both live in America and yet choose to study in the UK. I can see how it affects children though, if your heart is settled in a new country and your parents decide they want to go home- that’s a tough decision for anyone to make.’
[Shantanu Banerji, mobile conversation, November 2nd, 5.30pm]
Third culture kids may feel alone in new surroundings of environments where people are confident in their nationalities, however when TCK’s are with other TCK’s they are able to share strong emotional and psychological traits, being able to emphasise with one another’s personal and cultural identities from the various environments they have been exposed to.
Obama recognised this when coming into power in 2008, and chose to pack his staff with Third Culture Kids. He realised that the characteristics derived from an expat childhood may be well suited to the challenges facing new administration. With a team of Third Culture Kids in Obama’s administration he knows that each individual had lived with so many differences in their life time that little threatens them anymore. By negotiating between cultural worlds since birth, TCK’s don’t have to be taught such skills, its already second nature to them. Obama found that by working with the TCK’s they had a shared global perspective, socially acceptable and intellectually flexible. They are quick to think outside the box and can appreciate and reconcile different points of view.
However an issue facing TCK’s is that many haven’t held part time jobs through travelling from country to country therefore even if they succeeded in school and exams, the little practical work experience within the industry will be likely to hold them back when applying for jobs in adult hood.
In relation to Obama’s theory theres an article written by Denise A. Bonebright on ‘Adult Third Culture Kids’ that recognised the under-tapped source of high quality employees that ATCK’s produce. The advantages of ATCK’s are extremely beneficial to any employer with natural skills of adapting to new situations, willingness to relocate, fluency in more than one language, cross cultural skills, global network of social contacts amongst others. ATCK’s would be able to approach international assignments with a well- developed global skill set and desire to experience an international mobile lifestyle.
[www.tandfonlince.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13678861003746822 ,23 June 2010, Denise.A. Bonebright, Adult third culture kids: HRD challenges and opportunities, pages 351-359 abstract]
Interestingly, in 1984 Dr. Ted Ward, a sociologist at Michigan State University declared that Third Culture Kids will be the ‘prototype citizens of the future’, it seems that time is now. With extreme advancements in technology, transportation, communication, and trade, many children of many backgrounds all over the world are now growing up interacting with many cultural environments and not only will the rate of Third Culture Kids rise, it’s likely to become the norm.
[en.wiktionary.org/wiki/third_culture_kid 9 September 2011]
[www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2008/11/26/obamas-third-culture-team.html, Nov 26 2008, 10.56am, Ruth E.Van Reken]
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