children standing while holding Jack 'o lantern and wearing costume

Cross Cultural Kids

At the 2017 Families in Global Transition Conference (FIGT) in The Hague, Netherlands, Ruth van Reken elaborated on the term Cross Cultural Kid . Children are often in more than one of these circles at the same time. (e.g. A traditional TCK who is also from a minority group; a child of immigrants whose parents are from two different cultures, etc.) This helps us understand the growing complexity of the issues we face in our changing world . The term Cross Cultural Kid is the umbrella name for many variations of CCKs including:

Domestic Cross Cultural Kid

A child “whose parents have moved in and among various subcultures within that child’s home country.” (Pollock & Van Reken, 2009) This may be from the rural subculture to the city, from the subculture in one city to the subculture on the other side of that city, from a Capital city’s subculture to the subculture of another Capital city or from one State to another. Domestic TCKs are moving across cultures, they just happen to be within one country’s border.

Educational Cross Cultural Kid

A child who moves between educational cultures such as from the eastern educational culture to the western educational culture or vice versa. In this category I also include students moving from living at home and attending the local school to living in the school boarding house and experiencing a new educational culture.

Bi/Multi-cultural or Bi/Multi-racial Children

Children born to parents from at least two cultures or races.

Children of Borderlanders

Children living on or near the border between two countries, perhaps living in one country and going to school in another country.

Children of Immigrants

Children whose parents have made a permanent move to a new country where they were not originally citizens.

Children of Minorities

Children whose parents are from a racial or ethnic group which is not part of the majority race or ethnicity of the country in which they live.

Children of Refugees

Children whose parents are living outside their original country or place due to unchosen circumstances such […]

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