Social Identity And Negotiation Of Multiple Identities

1. Compare the cultural identities of the third culture individuals described in Moore & Barker's (2012) and the Chinese business people in Australia described in Liu (2011). What is similar and what is different, and why?
2. What does Liu mean by 'cultures merge into one another during interactions' (p. 411)? Explain and give an example from your own experience or from the literature (other than Liu).
3. In what ways is intercultural friendship different from just friendship? How does Killick's emphasis on 'seeing-ourselves-in-the-world' help further understand the development of intercultural friendship? Discuss with reference to the literature.
4. How, based on Hotta & Ting-Toomey (2013), can friendship play a role in the identity navigation process and intercultural adjustment of international students, transnational teachers or new migrants?

Answer 1. 

The study by Andrea Moore and Gina Barker focuses on the Third culture individuals. These people are described as people who live outside their homeland during developmental years. The third culture people have lived a major part of their lives in a foreign nation and developed relationships with different cultures (Moore, A.M. and Barker, G.G., 2012). On the other hand, the study by Shuang Liu has explained the integration of ethnic Chinese people in Australia. The Chinese people moved to Australia for businesses such as retail, hospitality, and trade. This study explains the relationship between host culture and home culture wherein, the Chinese people maintain their home culture and participate in the host culture. These two groups are similar to each other since they experience different cultures. However, they also have differences which can is clearly represented in their terminologies (Liu, S., 2011). The first group is termed as third culture individuals because they have experienced different cultures and learned various elements of them, which have become a part of their lives. However, the third culture individuals have not experienced full ownership of any one of them. As the name suggests, the third culture individuals form a different group of people who have experienced multiculturalism and develop intercultural skills. These people move between different cultures and do not complete the development of personal and cultural identities.  While the second group of people is named as integrationists because they follow their own culture at a personal level while developing relationships with host culture only for business activities. Unlike the third culture individuals, who denote multiculturalism, the integrationists denote acculturation. They integrate with Australian culture and also maintain close ties with their own ethnicity. Thus, the Chinese people have to maintain two separate identities and also have to be accepted by both the ethnic groups. What can be seen here is the constant struggle to maintain relationships and co-exist with different ethnical groups (Liu, S., 2011). 

Other than these differences, both the studies also show some similarity. The major similarity between the third culture individuals and Chinese integrationists is that they come across different cultural groups and interact with host culture to survive and develop their own position in the new society. Both of these groups have seemed to benefit from such interactions, especially in the case of third culture individuals because they have successfully maintained a stable, functional and reciprocal relationship with the environment. Therefore, it can be noted that in spite of challenges to adopting different cultural values and experiencing a lack of belongingness, the Chinese integrationists and third cultural individuals possess multiple cultural identities and developed their social skills (Moore, A.M. and Barker, G.G., 2012).