Hidden Immigrants: Legacies of Growing Up Abroad (West and the Wider World Series, Vol 11) [Paperback]

Linda Bell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0940121352 | ISBN-13: 978-0940121355 | Publication Date: September 1997

Linda Bell, the wife of a retired diplomat who raised her own children in assignments around the world, recounts the problems and pleasures of living a nomad's life, from the perspective both of the children and their parents.

Editorial Reviews

Review

David C. Pollock, Director Interaction, Inc. Behind each of Linda Bells 'voices,' I heard the chorus of hundreds of 'third culture kids' of all ages with whom I have had contact over three decades...it is a very valuable contribution to a growing population. -- Kay Branaman Eakin, President, Foreign Service Youth Foundation

Linda Bell managed to find 'voices'who articulated all the loneliness, isolation, and yet, strength, that I encountered in 'third culture kids' since beginning my research in the 70s. -- Kay Branaman Eakin, President, Foreign Service Youth Foundation

About the Author

Entering the foreign service in 1965 as a relatively knew bride, the author accompanied her husband, Charles, on a 26 year oddyssey that took her to Morocco, Tunisa, Ivory Coast, Norway, New Zealand, Zimbabwe,and Zambia. Both Bell daughters were born in Africa and brought up in different parts of the world. This book is a story of their growing up in foreign lands.

Product Details

• Paperback: 157 pages
• Publisher: Cross Cultural Pubns/Crossroads (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0940121352
• ISBN-13: 978-0940121355
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,126,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lively, intimate look at some flesh-and-blood Third-Culture Kids, April 19, 2006

By 

Gene H. Bell-villada (Williamstown, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hidden Immigrants: Legacies of Growing Up Abroad (West and the Wider World Series, Vol 11) (Paperback)

Through personal interviews with well-chosen 13 subjects, Linda Bell gets to explore in some depth the strange experience of growing up American overseas, and then of having to readjust to life in the States after coming "home." Her interviewees range from age 29 through late 50s, and they come alive in these pages. Those of us who have had analogous upbringings will feel shocks of sympathetic recognition as we read the life stories of these adult "Third Culture Kids." Such familiar issues as "Who I Was, When," and "Living on the Surface," and "Why Do I Feel So migratory?" (all of them titles of chapters) spring vividly to life here. Issues of language inevitably crop up. And the absence, among these subjects, of any sense of attachment to a landscape came as a new insight to this reader. As Linda Bell herself says of her subjects, "they didn't seem to take much notice of where they were living... It just didn't come up as a topic. Also, not one of the voices seems really attached to the geography where they find themselves now." This is a fresh and highly readable addition to a growing literature on the still scarcely acknowledged matter of being raised American in foreign lands and how it can affect one's psyche and personality.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars TCKs, March 16, 2006

By 

T. P. Harrington "Feilong" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hidden Immigrants: Legacies of Growing Up Abroad (West and the Wider World Series, Vol 11) (Paperback)

This is useful for parents living overseas and wishing to know how 'Third Culture Kids' struggle to re-enter their 'home' countries after being raised overseas. It can also provide useful background reading for ethnographic researchers as Bell provides extracts from original transcripts. Bell is clear that she is a journalist and not an academic, so do not expect in- depth analysis drawing on lots of other sources. However, the extracts are very effectively compiled to demonstrate common trends.
The interviewees are all Americans.