What is a TCK or 3CK?

I've gotten some interesting feedback from my post the other day. One thing I wanted to define for those not familiar with the term is that of a Third Culture Kid (abbreviated TCK or 3CK).

My cyber friend Global Gal pointed out that each of our daughters, after living abroad, could be considered TCKs. This is potential true for our older girls (MGJ has spent 2/5 of her life here and EHJ nearly 1/2) but certainly true at this point for our youngest who has celebrated all of her birthdays in Asia.

It's an interesting phenomenon that most people don't think about, but something we've found important to study up on after moving our kids outside of our culture.

Some authors now argue that it is not just children, but also their parents who live in this third culture which is neither the culture of their home country or the culture of the country they now live in. For more on this concept see the writings of Robin Pascoe over at the expatexpert.com.

Below is a literal a cut and paste from Wiki... but it seems pretty accurate.

Third Culture Kids or Trans-Culture Kids, (abbreviated TCKs or 3CKs,) whom are sometimes also called Global Nomads, "refers to someone who, as a child, has spent a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than his or her own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture".^[1]

Since the term was coined by sociologist Ruth Hill Useem in the 1960s, TCKs have become a heavily studied global subculture. TCKs tend to have more in common with one another, regardless of nationality, than they do with non-TCKs from their own country.^[2][3]

The composition of American TCK sponsors (i.e. the organization that sends the family abroad) changed greatly after World War II. Prior to World War II, 66% of TCKs came from missionary families and 16% came from business families. After World War II, with the increase of international business and the rise of two International Superpowers, the composition of international families changed. Sponsors are generally broken down into five categories: Missionary (17%), Business (16%), Government (23%), Military (30%), and "Other" (14%).^[4]

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Culture_Kids