Rooted To Nowhere

Whether their parents are missionaries or managing directors, almost all expat kids have a moment when they realize that their adopted home means at least as much to them as their country of origin. For Daniel Welch, now a senior at the American School in Japan, it came when his family temporarily returned to Utah after 31/2 years in Tokyo. His new classmates never asked about his life abroad: "I would say I was from Japan and they wouldn't care." Welch had become — to use a phrase popularized by consultant David Pollock — a Third Culture Kid, one who inherited...

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