ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a key feature of the literature on professional migrant's children or Third Culture Kids (TCK), and a common characteristic amongst research participants, is the perception of oneself as being different in any context. It shows how TCKs use the term different as an identity marker and how this emphasizes their feeling of marginality in various contexts such as that of Melbourne and Singapore. The chapter presents a comparison between multicultural Melbourne and cosmopolitan Singapore to demonstrate how the local context affects TCKs experience in these two cities. It discusses the common characteristics of TCK experience, namely, constant transience, having an international identity and a broad worldview, points toward the paradox between longing for similarity and putting difference at the heart of one's experience. The chapter exposes some of the common characteristics TCKs share in order to further emphasize how a transient and mobile upbringing has an impact on ones social relations, identification and sense of belonging.
