Global Citizens on Local Civic Engagement: When Growing Up Everywhere Can Ground You Locally

This is a discussion for those who find it a challenge to answer, “Where are you from?”, including those who are Black but are still processing the identity of African American or the Asian American who feels like disasters that happen in Germany are happening locally. Watch or listen “podcast-style” to four global souls about how they participated in local civic engagement for the previous election cycle. Author Elif Shafak was criticized for claiming “multiple belongings” as a world citizen, accused by a politician that it meant she was a citizen of nowhere. This discussion reveals how world citizen practices local civic engagement and loyalty to a country.

As Vice President Kamala Harris represents a globally cross-cultural identity, TCKidNOW, a SanAntonio-based non-profit organization hosted a post-election group discussion with four Third Culture Kids or individuals who spent their developmental years growing up in different countries other than their parents’ or their birth country and who commonly identify with others who grew up rootless, such as military brats, on their civic participation in local elections. Please contact the organization for permission to publish or write about the discussion.