Identity issues and reentry training

In today's internationally mobile world the number of children glowing up outside of their passport countries has increased significantly. As a result, terms such as Third Culture Kids, Global Nomads and Returnees have been introduced to provide a categorization under which these individuals full. Demographically speaking, few commonalities exist among these individuals. They vary greatly in terms of their countries of residence, length of stay outside of their passport country, the number of countries in which they have lived, their exposure to local culture, etc. Despite these variations, researchers have found that these individuals have much in common. Their commonality largely stems from the fact that they "feel at home everywhere and nowhere" (Global Nomads International). In this article, we begin by exploring adjustment problems commonly experienced by Japanese adult returnees, as well as programs and services that currently exist for them. After revealing the scarcity of such programs we propose the creation of widely available reentry programs specifically designed for the Japanese adult returnee. As part of the proposal, we. (1) recommend a framework to be used in developing reentry training for adult returnees, and (2) suggest the use of the "Intercultural Sensitizer" in reentry training for adult returnees. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.