The Local Immigrant: The story of a third culture kid who found his way home

I never knew I was misplaced until I realised what it felt like to be home.

Jonty Tan is a Third Culture Kid who found home in his country of birth, Singapore.

There are many things that make him feel at home. The humid tropical air that he feels on his face after landing at Singapore’s award-winning Changi Airport, the taste of Char Kway Teow, the sense of community in a hawker centre, but after living in the UK since he was just 2 years old, why do these things continue to resonate for him?

In 2014, on holiday in Singapore from the UK, his homing beacon was activated and what began was a six-year journey of understanding why he spent his life feeling misplaced. In this personal, anecdotal and insightful autobiography, Jonty describes the twists and turns of this six-year wait before returning home, the pain of lost opportunities and the pressures of arriving in Singapore during the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic. He uncovers the struggles of childhood, being torn between two cultures and feeling lost in the middle, trying to embrace individuality while desperately wanting to belong.

On arriving and living in Singapore, he learns what it is to finally feel at home and how to navigate the feelings and challenges that come with being a foreigner in his own country.

Jonty Tan is The Local Immigrant.