Creating an inclusive and safe space for all is at the heart of FIGT’s work. But we also recognize that we can all carry unconscious bias and that there are underrepresented voices within our community. This month, we explore “diversity and inclusion,” starting with these resources.

One of FIGT’s goals is to make our community as inclusive and welcoming as possible, creating a safe space for all those who are globally mobile to share their experiences and stories. 

We are a diverse community, spanning the globe, but we also recognize that there are voices we are not hearing or representing enough in our work. We also appreciate that we can all carry unconscious bias. That’s one of the reasons that we will be focusing on diversity and inclusion over the next few weeks. 

In addition, our commitment to recognizing and exploring differences is at the heart of our 2020 Annual Conference.

Global mobility offers a realm of differences. Some we may expect — people, place, language, culture, religion. Some we may not — differences in education, work styles, employment, relationship, health and economic status, leisure opportunities, and life stages. 

How we embrace and bridge those differences not only impacts our personal and professional lives and well-being, but also those who surround us. 

We cannot possibly include every voice in just a few short weeks of videos and blogs but we can try.

And we would like ask for what FIGT2019’s Lightning Speaker Jerry Jones calls a mercy umbrella as we try to explore our community’s wonderful diversity.

To access the content: Please join us on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Video content will be available for the month and then archived to the members’ only section of this website.

(Items with * require FIGT member log-in.)

From this month's social media

• Same, Same, but Different: The Challenges of Relocating as a Same-sex Couple (Scott Cowcher)
• Twice-Exceptionality: A Bridge to Embracing Differences in International Schools (Sue Prior)
• Interview videos*
• • Telling the Untold Stories (Maddie White)
  • The Power of Latina Expats (Flor Garcia)
  • What Do We Mean by Diversity and Inclusion? (Trisha Carter and Dawn Bryan)
  • The Male Expat and Loneliness (Phil McAuliffe)
  • Expats and Neurodiversity (Nikki Moffitt)

From the FIGT archives

• “Unlikely Connections,” Cath Brew and Jerry Jones, (Lightning Presentation, FIGT2019)

• “Taking a Special Needs Child Overseas,” Rebecca Grappo (FIGT members can also watch her webinar: “Taking Your Child with Special Needs Overseas: What to Know Before You Go”*)

• “The ‘Other’ Expats: Diverse Voices from Dubai and How Race, Class and Privilege Affect our Mobility Experience,”* Mariam Ottimofiore (FIGT2018)

• “World Borderlanders And The Global Citizen Continuum,”* Kathleen Fairbanks Rubin (FIGT2008)

 

From the FIGT Bookstore

FIGT Bookstore features publications written or recommended by FIGT members. Purchasing through the affiliate links below supports the David C. Pollock Scholarship at no extra cost to you. (Descriptions are from Amazon.)

• A Family Just Like Mine, by Barbara-Anne Puren. “Gemma, an inquisitive, adopted child, travels the world looking for a family like her own.”

• Differently Wired: Raising an Exceptional Child in a Conventional World, by Deborah Reber. “A how-to, a manifesto, and a reassuring companion for parents who can so often feel that they have no place to turn.”

• Intercultural Marriage: Promises and Pitfalls, by Dugan Romano. The author “examines the impact of cultural differences in marriage and offers practical guidelines on how to deal with the complexities they bring to a partnership.”

• Kids Like Me: Voices of the Immigrant Experience, by Judith M. Blohm and Terri Lapinsky. “26 personal narratives celebrate the experience of young people making a new home in a strange community.”

If you would like to add your voice to this conversation, please contact Sarah at social-lead@figt.org. Small business and corporate members can also submit up to three blog posts a year — submit your article here or get in touch with blogeditor@figt.org.