The phrase “Army Brat” has such a terrible connotation. It makes me think of people who have moved around their entire lives and are socially maladjusted.
“Third Culture Kid” or 3CK/TCK means the same thing – maybe not necessarily having an affiliation with the army, but it’s the same idea.
People who move around as children because their parents are “stationed” or working outside of their own culture or country are filed under this category. According to Wikipedia before 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, 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%).
The phrase “Third Culture Kid” came about because the kids in these families integrate aspects of their birth culture and the new culture, creating a unique “third culture.”
There are also a lot of “famous” TCK’s:
- - President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and spent part of his childhood in Indonesia.
- - Actor Colin Firth spent most of his childhood in Nigeria, where his father was teaching. Then he moved to St. Louis, Missouri before returning to the UK.
- - Uma Thurman grew up in India.
- - Freddie Mercury of Queen was born in Zanzibar and later lived in the UK.
- - Sandra Bullock was born in the US, but lived in Germany until she was 12.
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