“Xtra Expat” there tends to be less of these around.
They cost a lot for a company because they bring with them the wife and the three kids on the journey. Usually they themselves are the off springs of expats and breed more expats. More than not these guys are actually very beneficial to companies as their expertise is usually huge – they know all about travel, culture, languages and are top in their field. They are Third Culture Kids and so are their children. They tend to marry like-minded spouses. Some of these guys are actually “Expat Experts” or “ Xtraordinary Expats” they may even considering becoming a “Loco Expat” and at some stage they might have been a “Love Expat”. I think in time they will be known as the “Xpensive Expat”.
To learn more about Third Culture Kids – there is a book and a study on the subject. It’s a very interesting study as it shows that these kids have a feeling of not belong to one particular country but to the world as a whole. I feel my children have the signs of being this type of person. They have friends all over the world already, they have far more life experience than their class room counterparts and they associate and understand children who are new to an environment. In fact they are usually the first to take a ‘newbie’ under their wings.
