Additional Resources
On Global Living
Expat Partner: Staying Active & Finding Work Paperback
by Carine Bormans, Marie Geuken
Lannoo Campus Publishers (31st July, 2020)
Can you plan your professional future as expat partner? Can you pursue a career in your new environment? What are your expectations and priorities? Moving abroad to follow a partner who is relocating is a decision that has both great benefits and potential pitfalls. According to 71% of expats who experienced a failed foreign posting, the reason provided is an unhappy partner. This book allows you to ask all the right questions, both before and during your stay abroad. To make a good start, establishing clear agreements is an important step. In looking at your own work differently, many unexpected doors may open. Written by former and current expats who have vast experience in making a new life in a foreign country, this book offers inspiring examples and useful warnings. Step by step, you will be able to make better life and career choices.
Whose Career—Yours, Mine or Ours?: Addressing the Dual Career Dilemma with CARE
Yvonne Quahe
Springtime Books (September 26, 2021)
Sound familiar? All too often, one career takes precedence over the other, and the dreams of a dual career marriage disintegrate into dust. And it’s even more complicated if you are globally mobile. Juggling two careers with multiple moves – and perhaps a family – can be fraught with difficulties.
Yvonne Quahe, sociologist, coach and HR professional, has spent the last 30 years living abroad as a globally mobile accompanying partner – and the last 13 developing programs for dual career families. In this powerful book, she maps out the common pitfalls and explains with refreshing clarity how to avoid them. Her trailblazing CARE Code (Clarify, Assess, Refocus, Explore) offers a framework for systematic dialogue to transform the way you – and HR professionals – approach the complex challenges faced by Dual Career Couples.
Packed with case studies, research and practical exercises, Whose Career – Yours, Mine or Ours? will guide you toward more productive conversations and, ultimately, to making the best decision for you and your careers.
If you and your partner are considering a global assignment, are in a dual career crisis or looking to renegotiate career prioritization in your relationship, this book is for you.
Couples That Work: How Dual Career Couples Can Thrive in Love and Work
Jennifer Petriglieri
Harvard Business Review Press (October 8, 2019)
It’s quite easy to get distracted from your career when you’re happy in love or devote all your time to securing a promotion at work only to find your relationship is on the rocks. Balancing the demands of your career and your partner’s while trying to nourish a relationship and family can be tough – but it doesn’t have to be.
In Couples That Work, Professor Jennifer Petriglieri reveals how all couples can thrive in work and love at the same time. Petriglieri has spent the last six years studying over a hundred couples in a variety of roles and types of relationships from all over the world.
Drawing on this research, Petriglieri highlights the three distinct yet predictable transitions that all couples go through and offers practical guidance in the form of questions, exercises and activities that couples can use to overcome the most pressing challenges they face.
From couples in their mid-20s to those in their mid-60s, from heterosexual couples to same-sex couples, from high flyers to steady careerists, and from those based in the US, to those in Asia, Europe and the Middle East, Couples That Work holds something of interest to all couples in which both members are committed to their careers and to each other.
Couples That Work provides dual-career couples with all the insight and tools they need to thrive in work and love.
Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief
by David Kessler
Simon and Schuster (November 5, 2019)
In this groundbreaking new work, David Kessler—an expert on grief and the coauthor with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross of the iconic On Grief and Grieving—journeys beyond the classic five stages to discover a sixth stage: meaning.
Many people look for “closure” after a loss. Kessler argues that it’s finding meaning beyond the stages of grief most of us are familiar with—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—that can transform grief into a more peaceful and hopeful experience.
In this book, Kessler gives readers a roadmap to remembering those who have died with more love than pain; he shows us how to move forward in a way that honors our loved ones. Kessler shares the insights, collective wisdom, and powerful tools that will help those experiencing loss.
The Art of Coming Home
by Craig Storti
Nicholas Brealey Publishing (March 22, 2022)
Most people who live overseas find repatriation—coming home after their foreign assignment—more difficult than going abroad in the first place. The Art of Coming Home explains why—identifying the main challenges and how to get beyond them. The book describes personal and work-related issues for returning employees, as well as key concerns and frustrations for returning spouses and children. It also features separate sections on special readjustment issues for five unique populations: exchange students, international volunteers, military personnel and their families, missionaries and their children, and Third Culture Kids.
This new edition includes a complete do-it-yourself repatriation workshop to help returnees design their personal reentry plan.
The Practice of Processing: Exploring our emotions to chart an intentional course
by Elizabeth Vahey Smith
TCK Training (April 28, 2022)
It is impossible to live an intentional life without processing our emotional experiences, yet, so many of us did not grow up learning this skill. The Practice of Processing: Exploring Our Emotions to Chart an Intentional Course gently invites us to delve into our experiences from an emotional perspective and gives us a helpful grid for doing this work that has historically been so abstract. If you are looking to grow in emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and internal processing, this book will guide you in that journey.
Extraordinary Experiences: Tales of Special Needs Abroad
by Kathi M Silva (Author), Patricia Linderman (Editor), Nicole Schaefer-McDaniel (Editor), Francesca Kelly (Editor), Jennifer Dinoia (Editor)
Independently published (October 1, 2019)
Experiencing another culture is meant to be fun, adventurous and mind-opening. But what happens when you mix the joys of living or traveling abroad with the struggles of having a physical, intellectual, medical or other special need? Join our authors as they share their adventures abroad with unique challenges. This is not a “how-to” book, but a book of real-life stories, where you will find inspiration, guidance and insights from ordinary people who have made extraordinary adjustments to their experiences far from home.
Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes
by William Bridges and Susan Bridges
Da Capo Lifelong Books; Special edition (December 17, 2019)
Whether it is chosen or thrust upon you, change brings both opportunities and turmoil. First published 40 years ago, named one of the fifty most important self-help and personal development books of all time, Transitions has helped hundreds of thousands of people cope with constant change in their lives by providing an elegantly simple yet profoundly insightful roadmap of the transition process.
With the understanding born of both personal and professional experience, William Bridges takes readers step by step through the three stages of any transition: The Ending, The Neutral Zone, and, in time, The New Beginning. Bridges explains how each stage can be understood and embraced, leading to meaningful and productive movement into a hopeful future. A new discussion guide with reflections for readers, written by Susan Bridges, is aimed at today’s current individuals facing unprecedented change.
Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds
by Ruth E. Van Reken, Michael V. Pollock, David C. Pollock Nicholas Brealey 3rd edition (September 5, 2017) In this 3rd edition of the ground-breaking global classic, Ruth E. Van Reken and Michael V. Pollock, son of the late original co-author, David C. Pollock, have significantly updated what is widely recognized as “The TCK Bible.” Emphasis is on the modern TCK and addressing the impact of technology, cultural complexity, diversity and inclusion and transitions. Includes new advice for parents and others for how to support TCKs as they navigate work, relationships, social settings and their own personal development.
Raising Global Teens: A Practical Handbook for Parenting in the 21st Century
by Dr. Anisha Abraham
Summertime Publishing (October 1, 2020)
Globalization has given many of us unparalleled opportunities to work, travel, fall in love, and raise kids all over the world. But it’s made being a teen more complicated than ever. Imagine having to discover your identity and place in the world when you keep having to move communities, your parents are from different cultural or ethnic backgrounds, or you’re exposed to multiple cultures daily.
How can we help these cross-cultural teens stay happy, healthy, and balanced particularly in a time of uncertainty and a global pandemic?
Raising Global Teens explores the hot topics that adolescents experience today: identity, social media, body image, puberty, drugs, stress, and sex, all in the context of our modern, mobile world. In this easy-to-read handbook, Dr Anisha provides answers to the common, if tough, questions from global teens and their parents. She combines real-world examples with practical solutions, drawing on the latest research, her own experience and that of the many cross-cultural teens she has worked with over the last 25 years. Raising Global Teens enables busy families, health providers, and educators build powerful tools to help today’s adolescents thrive.
Raising Up a Generation of Healthy Third Culture Kids: A Practical Guide to Preventive Care
by Lauren Wells
Independently published (March 12, 2020)
If we could ensure that our TCKs would grow up healthy and resilient, we would do it in a heartbeat. In Raising up a Generation of Healthy Third Culture Kids, Lauren Wells has gifted us with a gentle guide and a preventive health primer, unique in the field of third culture kid literature. This book is a goldmine of wisdom, organized in a practical and readable format. While we cannot know all our TCKs will go through, we can take a giant step forward by learning how to multiply the benefits of a global life and conversely pay attention to the challenges that can become stumbling blocks to healthy development. If you are working with, raising, or love third culture kids from any part of the globe, this book will give you practical ways to be proactive about the way you raise up third culture kids.
Raising Global Nomads: Parenting Abroad in an On-Demand World
by Robin Pascoe
RRLJ Investments LTD (August 25, 2006)
A lot has changed since well-known Canadian author Robin Pascoe wrote Culture Shock! A Parent’s Guide. The world has become globalized, digitalized, and sadly, terrorized. That’s the big picture that Pascoe examines in Raising Global Nomads. In her own life, the author’s day job raising her two children has ended as her daughter begins a career as an environmental activist and her son heads to university. In her fifth book for expatriate families, the author recounts with honesty and trademark humour what worked for her family and shares the hard lessons learned. Parenting styles in general, and of third culture kids in particular, have changed dramatically, prompting this timely and comprehensive reexamination of the challenges of parenting abroad.
Misunderstood: The Impact of Growing Up Overseas in the 21st Century
by Tanya Crossman
Summertime Publishing (August 01, 2016)
Over 200 million people currently live abroad; of these, more than 50 million are temporary residents, intending to return to their country of origin. Misunderstood explores the impact international life has on the children of such families – while they live overseas, when they return, and as they mature into adults. Similarities in their shared experiences (regardless of the different countries in which they have lived) create a safe space of comfort and understanding. Tanya Crossman introduces this space – the Third Culture – through the personal stories of hundreds of individuals.
The Grief Tower: A Practical Guide to Processing Grief with Third Culture Kids
by Lauren Wells
Independently published (January 22, 2021)
Children who grow up outside of their parent’s passport country, Third Culture Kids (TCKs), experience a significant number of losses, grief-inducing experiences, and traumas during their developmental years. These events stack up like blocks on a tower throughout the life of the TCK, creating what Lauren Wells has coined the Grief Tower. If it continues to stack without these experiences being processed, a TCK’s Grief Tower is likely to crash in their early adulthood. But is this avoidable? Can parents and caregivers provide care that prevents the tower from stacking too high in the first place? The answer is yes, and this practical resource is full of tools for helping the TCKs we love to process their grief.
Unstacking Your Grief Tower: A Guide to Processing Grief as an Adult Third Culture Kid
by Lauren Wells
Independently published (September 25, 2021)
When we tell people that we lived abroad during our developmental years, we’re often met with awe and envy. What they don’t see are the number of losses we experienced with each move, the amount of “goodbyes” we said, or the hardships that we endured. Each of these stack up like blocks on a tower, each block influencing how we deal with the next hardship we face. This hope-filled book offers you the invitation to uncover and process the blocks on your Grief Tower. Through her own experience, Lauren Wells walks you compassionately and practically through unstacking your Grief Tower in light of your Third Culture Kid experiences.
Being a Distance Son or Daughter: A Book for ALL Generations
by Helen Ellis (Author)
Distance Families Publishing (July 7, 2022)
What is it truly like being a son or daughter who leaves home to live in an expat/migrant setting? How does it feel to be geographically separated from your parents, grandparents and other family members? Maybe you’ve left home for your studies, your career, a sense of adventure, for a challenge, for love. But how do you venture forth into your global world and still retain and nourish connections with ‘home’, always knowing “it was my choice to leave”?
Holding the Fort Abroad: Beyond Surviving – living and parenting abroad with a partner who works away from home
by Rhoda Bangerter
Summertime Publishing (April 13, 2021)
You moved away to be closer together.But now you’re further apart than ever.Your partner’s job opportunity in another country seemed like an exciting idea, but lengthy work assignments mean you’re holding down the family fort – alone. If you’re living an expat life and find yourself parenting solo due to a partner’s frequent business travel, you’ll be asking yourself:How can we be a family when we’re miles apart? What is my role in this lifestyle? Can I cope, alone, when troubles arise?Life Coach and multicultural solo-parent Rhoda Bangerter believes there are answers to all these questions, and the answers start with you. In this context, it’s more important than ever to invest in yourself, to care for yourself, set your own goals and watch yourself grow. Equally important is to nurture your relationship with your partner.Rhoda’s hard-won wisdom will inspire you to navigate the choppy waters of holding the fort abroad!
Notes from a Traveling Childhood: Readings for Internationally Mobile Parents & Children
by Karen C. McCluskey (Editor)
Foreign Service Youth Foundation (January 1, 1994)
An anthology of writings by parents, children, educators, researchers, and mental health professionals about the effects of international mobility on children and families.
Transition Tips
by Ruth Van Reken
(November 7, 2022)
Written especially for the WBG Family Network, this article discusses the hidden losses we experience in relocation and suggests healthy ways to grieve them.
“Accompanying Spouse” Shock
by Robin Pascoe
Expat Expert (2006)
Culture Shock Stages: Everything You Need to Know
by Lauren McCluskey |
Now Health International (January 20, 2020)
Like it or not, culture shock is an intrinsic part of living abroad so it’s best to acknowledge the inevitability of it and prepare yourself to adapt as quickly as possible.
Why Culture Shock is Good for you
by Work the World Guides
Work the World
A set of infographics which take a deeper look at what culture shock is and how it can actually benefit you.
How to Return Home After an Assignment Abroad
by Andy Molinsky and Melissa Hahn
Harvard Business Review (October 24, 2017)
You may be stunned to feel alienated in your own culture when you return after an assignment. When reverse culture shock hits, it can be discouraging, but if you approach it right, it can be a productive growing pain.
Uprooted with No RAFT
by Marilyn Gardner
A Life Overseas (September 11. 2020)
Marilyn Gardner offers a tool for unexpected departures, virtual goodbyes, and long periods of waiting in the in between, with the acronym CRAFT, “because a Crisis before the RAFT changes everything”.
Why Gratitude is the Best Answer for Difficult Expat Emotions
by Jodi Harris
World Tree Coaching (November 30, 2018)
For expats, one of the biggest gifts of practicing gratitude is that it’s so portable. Learning to engage with gratitude provides unique ways in which to deal with many of the difficult emotions that plague our unpredictable international lives.
Third Culture Kids: Prototypes for Understanding Other Cross-Cultural Kids
by Ruth Van Reken
Ruth Van Reken reviews the concepts of Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and Cross-Cultural Kids (CCKs). Perhaps one of the greatest gifts to give a CCK is to acknowledge the reality that this world of multiple cultures they have experienced as children is a valid place of belonging.
The Trouble with Third Culture Kids
by Nina Sichel
Children’s Mental Health Network (March 30, 2018)
TCKs need the time, space and permission to remember and to mourn what they have left behind. They need to tell their stories and deserve to be heard, to be healed and to be whole.
Finding Home Between Worlds: Who are Third Culture Kids?
by Marianna Pogosyan Ph.D.
Psychology Today (March 30, 2016)
TCKs learn to use their multicultural abilities to fit in different places, to integrate their multiple frames of reference … and to move fluidly between cultures while taking an active role in creating their own identities.
How to Be a Better Dad: The I-CANs of Fatherhood
by Ken Canfield
I-C-A-N stands for four key fundamentals of fathering, according to research involving thousands of dads.
Working as a Team Even When One is Away
by Yvonne Quahe
World Bank Group Family Network (November 7, 2022)
Tips for when one parent is away for work (for long periods of time frequently) or living in another country for some reason, i.e., non-family postings.
Interaction International Resources
Resources and events for internationally mobile families and TCKs.
Diplomatic Spouses Association: Worldwide (DSAW)
Networking and mutual support for partners of diplomats (including international organizations) around the world.
Compendium of books by expats for expats, with a newsletter.
In Transit (formely Expat Happy Hour)
Weekly podcast by Sundae Bean, intercultural strategist and transformation facilitator.
More than 5,400 online courses, professional certificates and degrees from world-class universities and companies.
Online courses from over 160 universities.
Daraja provides coaching, consulting, and advocacy for quality care and transition adjustment to cross-cultural and mobile individuals and families.
Website of TCK expert, Ruth Van Reken, with insights and resources.
Global Nomads Group (for youth, parents and educators)
A platform of courses and programs designed by global youth for global youth, parents and educators.
Communicating Across Boundaries
Website of expert, Marilyn Gardner, with resources, a blog and a list of blogs for TCKs and their parents.
Research based awareness and resources for TCKs, parents and educators, and a forum for adult TCKS.
Resours, support, and community for expats with travelling partners and split location families, with a free downloadable self-coaching guide.
Website of a counselling service for adult TCKs, with resources, blog and podcasts.
An online community for expat mums with travelling husbands or husbands working overseas.
Conversations and a book series about the effects of distance on families.
The I-CANs of Fatherhood: Website of the National Center for Fathering.
Expat Kids Leaning Differentlyt
An online community and resources for parents and carers of children who learn differently and are living a globally mobile life.
Online TCK clubs for kids, and resources for parents and advocates.
WBGFN often organizes events which are videotaped. Please follow this link.