Dear Duke and the Mission Frontiers team,
Hi, my name is Pradeep Rajendran. I’m an adult MK and TCK from Bangalore, South Asia. A friend of mine, a Nepalese MK from Nepal, just sent me a copy of your magazine on TCKs. I’m surprised that there is no representation of Global South and non-Western passport holders from the MK/TCK community. I think this continues to perpetuate the idea that TCKs are mostly white or Western passport holders, or of a certain privilege and cross borders on planes. In my part of the world, we’re hardly privileged, and we navigate borders on boats, vehicles, and on foot.
I appreciate that Duke mentions in the editorial that the magazine “wanted to give wide-ranging perspectives to capture the full breadth of experiences,” however as the power centers in the world shift, the magazine didn’t present a glimpse of what the future holds. There were quite a few of these voices at ITCKC 2023 in Chiang Mai.
I was raised across India in South Asia, a part of the world where migration patterns have been constantly shifting because we’re several civilizations stacked on each other with the additional and disruptive layers of multiple colonizations by the West, facts that the next edition of the TCK Book by Ruth Van Reken is just starting to navigate.
I’m sharing an FIGT webinar presented by my colleague, Dr. Danau Tanu, and me. We work with MKs and TCKs in Global South countries.
https://www.youtube.com/live/xZdrdU1i_e8?si=aZJ7UwpNC2v8wpua
Sincerely,
Pradeep Rajendran
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Dear Pradeep,
Thank you so much for writing.
You are correct in pointing out this shortcoming in our TCK issue. We are trying to expand our author pool but are still limited by our own circles. We will continue to make efforts to correct this.
Unfortunately, it is too late for the print issue on TCKs, but we would be happy to add articles to the online issue. If you would like to write of your experiences and could invite other TCKs from the Global South to do the same, we would be happy to add them to our online TCK issue.
Thank you,
Duke Dillard, editor of Mission Frontiers
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