Expat Children: Increasing in Numbers
Global mobility produces third culture kids & often an identity crisis
It is human nature to seek others like yourself, to belong to a group whose characteristics you share. It helps define you and your place in the world. But what happens when you don’t belong to the most elemental group of all, one that most people have from birth and take for granted — a nationality, a defined culture?
More people around the world are on the move than ever before. From corporate transferees to students to retirees, the population of expats is forecast to continue rising into the 21st century. (Refugees, political asylum seekers and illegal immigrants are not counted as expats, who move abroad for a specific job/purpose for a temporary period, typically from one to five years, and often undertake multiple such moves.) According to the 2018 study “Global Expatriates: Size, Segmentation and Forecast for the Worldwide Market,” by London-based Finaccord, a financial services firm, the number of expats increased from 829 million in 2013 to more than 1 billion in 2017. By 2021, the expat population is predicted to reach 1.291 billion people. Other key parts of overseas expat communities involve military, diplomatic, and missionary families. The U.S. Department of Defense estimates that 15 million Americans are former or current military “brats,’’ nearly half of whom grew up…
