You grew up outside your parents' home country because of their job. You soaked up pieces of every culture you lived in but never fully owned any of them.
It feels like: You belong a little bit everywhere. And not quite fully anywhere.
Academic Definition:
"A person who has spent a significant part of their developmental years outside their parents' culture due to a parent's career choice, assimilating elements of each culture while not having full ownership of any."
— Pollock & Van Reken, 2009
Your parents chose to permanently move to a new country. You grew up figuring out their home culture and the new country's culture at the same time — every single day.
It feels like: One version of you existed at home. Another existed everywhere else.
Academic Definition: “Children whose parents have made a permanent, voluntary move to a new country where they were not originally citizens, resulting in the child navigating between the home culture and the host culture simultaneously."
— Van Reken, 2002
Your family didn't choose to leave — they were forced out by circumstances beyond their control. You grew up between cultures, but that move was never yours or your family's choice to make.
It feels like: You carry the weight of a journey you didn't choose. And had to learn to call it normal.
Academic Definition:
"Children whose parents are living outside their original country or place of origin due to unchosen circumstances including war, violence, famine, persecution, or other crises beyond the family's control."
— Van Reken, 2002
You never left your home country but your family moved between genuinely different subcultures within it. You experienced all the identity challenges of cross-cultural growing up — without ever crossing a border.
It feels like: You felt foreign in your own country. And had no passport to prove why.
Academic Definition:
"Children whose parents have moved among various subcultures within their home country, resulting in cross-cultural experiences and the associated challenges of transition and identity formation without international relocation."
— Van Reken, 2002
Your parents' racial or ethnic background was different from the majority in the country where you grew up. Every day involved moving between your family's culture and the dominant one around you.
It feels like: You switched between two worlds daily. And neither one ever fully claimed you.
Academic Definition:
"Children whose parents belong to a racial or ethnic group that is not part of the majority race or ethnicity of the country in which the family resides, resulting in daily navigation between family culture and dominant culture."
— Van Reken, 2002
You were adopted by parents from a different country than where you were born. You grew up navigating your birth culture, your adoptive family's culture, and the country you were raised in — sometimes all three at once.
It feels like: You didn't just navigate two cultures. You navigated the question of which ones were even yours.
Academic Definition:
"Children adopted by parents from a country other than their birth country, who navigate the intersection of their birth culture, adoptive family culture, and the culture of the country in which they are raised."
— Van Reken, 2002
Your parents came from two or more different cultures or racial backgrounds. You were navigating multiple cultural identities from birth — not because you moved, but because of who your family is.
It feels like: The complexity wasn't something that happened to you. It was built into you from birth.
Academic Definition:
"Children born to parents from at least two different cultures or racial backgrounds, who experience the navigation of multiple cultural identities from birth rather than through geographic relocation."
— Van Reken, 2002