Third Culture Kids

Rating:
Summary: A MUST for all who live or have lived overseas.
Review: This is an excellent book. It should be read by everyone who is living and working overseas, away from their home environment, especially those who have their children with them. Succinctly, with erudition, and with an easy-to-read style it examines and explains the problems experienced by a person who spends, or has spent, a significant part of his or her development years outside their parents' home culture. It contains much practical advice on how to deal with these problems. The term third culture was coined in the 1950s by Drs John and Ruth Useem, when they made a study of Americans who lived in India as foreign service officers, missionaries, technical aid workers, and business representatives. It was realised that there were expatriates from other countries who were undergoing similar experiences even though from different origins, styles and social stratification systems. There was a shared common lifestyle that was different from either their own or their host culture. The book is a result of much research that the authors have undertaken since that time into the effects of this third culture on the children of overseas serving ex-pats. However, the experiences so neatly described pertain not only to what they call third culture kids (TCKs) but also to adult TCKs. Furthermore, the wisdom and advice displayed in this delightfully readable book is also fully appropriate for those working and living overseas without children. It makes it clear why so many people who do a spell overseas get "bitten by the bug," and are drawn back to the place where they did their tour, often permanently. An overseas duty can be an emotionally exciting experience, but it can also be and emotionally disturbing one. This book explains why this is so, as well as explaining how the disturbances can be dealt with.