When I started Denizen, I never expected the amount of emails I would receive from readers who had been touched by the site. A lot of people email just to share their stories, which is interesting and fantastic. Tonight I exported a bunch of those emails into Wordle (see a sample of those emails here). Here’s the result… All I can say is thank you, so very much, for reading Denizen and for sharing your kind emails.
When Kendra Mirasol and Charisse Kosova of IOR Global Services noticed more minority women going abroad, they wondered if minority status made expat assignment easier. Since good expat research is hard to come by, they decided to conduct their own investigation. The focus: female minority women going abroad for business. A study can’t get much more specific than that, which meant preliminary research included only 25 respondents, 13 of whom went through extensive interviews. When they presented their findings at the Families in Global Transition conference in March, the numerical data was unsurprising: “Is the overseas assignment a developmental part of your career plan?” 83 percent said yes. “Did any of the company’s preparation focus on female minority issues?” 89 percent said no. Instead, the most interesting results from their research came from the anecdotes collected through extended interviews. Here are some quotes from female minority expats that Kendra and Charisse presented: “People assumed I was Filipino and had married my husband because I was his maid. It fit their sense of order.” “Initially [the …
Kira Miller Fabregat, 24, was one of the first Third Culture Kids I spoke to here at the Families in Global Transitions Conference in Houston. A daughter of an Argentine diplomat, she recently graduated with a law degree from the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, and has lived in Venezuela, Argentina, Spain, Australia, Trinidad & Tobago and France. What do you say when someone asks you where are you from? My answer is: my family is Argentinean, my mother is from Chile, I was born in Venezuela, my passport says I’m Argentinean. I always tell my story. Why? Because telling the story is showing a part of the person who I am. … If you don’t know I’ve lived everywhere, then it means that you don’t know me at all. You don’t understand me. So I always tell my story. I tell it short, but I tell it. Why are you here at the FIGT conference? I have skills and resources within me that I don’t even know. So I’m here to try to take them …
Deniz Gyger Gaspoz, 33, is a PhD researcher at the Institute of Psychology and Education at University of Neuchatel. She’s picked a pretty specific course of study: French-speaking, teen Third Culture Kids. During a brief chat at the Families in Global Transition (FIGT) conference, I picked her brain on what she had discovered so far. Deniz, a daughter of Swiss diplomats, speaks French fluently and has lived in Iran, France, Germany, Switzerland, Senegal and India. What do you say when someone asks you, “Where are you from?” If I’m here in Houston, I can say without a problem “Switzerland.” I’ve lived there for more than 8 years. But if Swiss people ask me where I am from, I will have difficulties to answer. I’ll say “Geneva” because I lived there and my family is there. Then sometimes I say Neuchatel [Switzerland] because I study in Neuchatel and I used to live there. And sometimes I say Biel [Switzerland] because I’m living there with my husband. Why does your research focus on French-speaking teenagers? I found …
I started Denizen because I firmly believe that TCKs deserve a support network. Josh Sandoz, 32, is out there doing exactly that. Working toward licensure as a mental health therapist in Washington state, he is currently Interaction International’s (a TCK group) director of child support services, and serves as a therapist in multiple capacities at a local psychiatric hospital and graduate school in Seattle. As part of Interaction International, Sandoz recently started a resource of mental health experts familiar with the TCK and expat experience. What’s your answer to “Where are you from?” It depends where I am, and who is asking me, and what I think they want to know. But usually I’ll re-frame the question and say I was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. How has learning the language of “TCK” helped you embrace your own experience? Words are really powerful. All words, in a way, are metaphors for trying to understand our own experiences. …I liken it to the myth around the Inuit population, to how they have all these …
Have you ever heard of a “reverse TCK?” I hadn’t either, but after meeting Reiko Baumgarten, 24, at the FIGT conference, I’ve decided that I am one, too. A reverse TCK is someone who has grown up with the expat community, even though he or she has not moved a lot. Hit me. “Where are you from?” I was born and raised in Japan for 19 years. I’m actually the reverse role of most TCKs. I didn’t move around, everybody else around me moved around. My experience was everybody moving. Why was everyone moving around you? My father is retired military, and we went to a military school [in Japan]. Everybody else was in military school — all the military brats that moved around to different places. So… do you “get” what it means to be a TCK? Oh yeah, definitely. Coming to FIGT, everything opened my eyes. …I feel what most TCKs feel, just from my experience coming abroad as well — since I lived in Japan, coming here [to the U.S.], the culture …
This week I’m attending the Families in Global Transitions (FIGT) Conference, which is a wonderful resource for anyone trying to learn more about Third Culture Kids. At this morning’s workshop I met Adam Browning, 21, and pulled him aside for a quick TCK chat. This self-proclaimed “airforce kid” recently discovered the language of Third Culture Kids and has fully embraced it as a way to change the world. Currently in college, Browning has lived in Germany, Thailand and five different U.S. states. He sees TCKs as model citizens of the future. What do you say when someone asks you, “Where are you from?” I say, “Funny question.” At this point my family lives in Portugal, I’m going to Abilene [Christian University in Texas], and I moved from San Antonio to go to school. How did you discover the term “TCK”? I learned the lingo my sophomore year in college… Dr. Carley Dodd, a professor of mine, was instrumental in this epiphany for me. Up until that point I was under the impression that I was …
Olympic contenders Allison, Cathy and Chris Reed are all siblings — but they are competing for two different countries. The Reed children were born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to a Japanese mother and a Nebraskan father. They all have dual-citizenships: United States and Japan. None of them are competing for the U.S. Olympic team. Allison, 15, found an ice dancing partner in Otar Japaridze, 22, a Georgian athlete. For them to compete, the Georgian government quickly ushered her citizenship application through. This February, she marched as a Georgian athlete in the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. She has never been to Georgia. For Allison’s siblings Cathy, 22, and Chris, 20, qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Team for ice dancing would’ve been very difficult. Instead, the two nabbed a spot on the Japanese Olympic team. According the New York Times, the siblings speak little Japanese, and their mother translates conversations between them and the Japanese skating federation. Making citizenship “work for you” is not uncommon in sports. I’ve seen Singapore poach athletes from other countries to have them win …
In four and a half weeks, they covered 6,400 miles and six countries on board “Clutch,” their trusty 12-year-old Peuguot 106, seeing England, France, Spain, Morocco, Senegal and Mali.
“You know Entourage? I was basically Lloyd,” he laughs. After eight months of what he describes as a “Devil-Wears-Prada existence,” he now works as the assistant to the executive producer of ‘Glee’
Denizen 