Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds by David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken Raising Global Nomads by Robin Pascoe Barbara Schaetti and Lois J. Bushong The Global Nomad's Guide to University Transition by Tina L. Quick (review)

issn 0362-4021 © 2015 Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society group, Vol. 39, No. 2, Summer 2015 173 1 Correspondence should be addressed to Xiaojue Hu, MD, Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016. E-mail: Xiaojue.Hu@ nyumc.org. Book Review Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds. By David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken. Revised edition. Boston: Nicholas Brealey, 2009, 308 pp. Raising Global Nomads. By Robin Pascoe, with contributions from Barbara Schaetti and Lois J. Bushong. Vancouver: Expatriate Press, 2006, 229 pp. The Global Nomad’s Guide to University Transition. By Tina L. Quick. London: Summertime, 2010, 269 pp. Reviewed by Xiaojue Hu1 A new generation of globalized citizens is pursuing psychotherapy for help with identity exploration and complex acculturation problems. In addition to traditional immigrants, there is a subgroup of hidden immigrants: young cosmopolitan Americans who spent their formative years in ex-pat communities overseas. Reentry and repatriation into American society prove to be uniquely problematic and more difficult than anticipated. Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds by David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken is an excellent tour guide to the psychic terrain of these young adult internationals of the twenty-first century. Written for parents, Robin Pascoe’s Raising Global Nomads also allows the psychotherapist to gain insight into the emotional experience and family dynamics of so-called third-culture kids. Last, Tina L. Quick’s The Global Nomad’s Guide to University Transition distills much of the preceding wisdom into college-specific tips perfect to recommend to international students who are struggling with the adjustment to the distinct culture of the American university itself. 174 hu According to Pollock and Van Reken’s foundational text, the term third-culture kid (TCK) was originally coined by social scientists Ruth Hill Useem and John Useem in the 1950s to describe 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 the same background. (p. 13) An example of the typical TCK biography might be someone who is born to a White American mother and a Black African father, spends his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia, and then goes to college in the United States. Sound familiar? All three books use Barack Obama as perhaps the most famous TCK example to further emphasize how people of such culturally complex backgrounds will indeed be “the prototype citizens of the future.” Initially, TCK were synonymous with the children of missionaries, Foreign Service workers, and the military. Third culture is not to be equated with third world here, however. The first culture was originally considered the passport country of the parents, while the second culture is the host country where the family may be stationed and where the child will have spent significant portions of his or her developmental life. The third culture then becomes that of the expatriate lifestyle, or an “interstitial culture” of people who have a nomadic lifestyle in common. Pollock and Van Reken also introduce the concept of the CCK, or cross-cultural kid, as someone who grows up in a profoundly culturally mixed environment, such as the children of immigrants, refugees, and/or bicultural or biracial marriages, who share many of the characteristics of the TCK profile. Regardless of the acronyms used, a culturally complex heritage has significant, unique psychological ramifications. As Pollock and Van Reken explain, and the other two books echo, the TCK is someone who may seem mature beyond his or her years, has an expanded worldview, and speaks multiple languages fluently. He or she may also be adept at adapting to new environments, may make new friends easily, and can be especially effective at building bridges between different cultures. Such strengths are easily recognized as an undoubtedly positive heritage of the global lifestyle, but what is so noteworthy about Pollock and Van Reken’s book is its parallel exploration of the possible...

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