Does living overseas make us more sophisticated?

When I was working on my master's degree in philosophy, the professors taught us that the "answer is in the question". Fair enough. Does living overseas make us more sophisticated? The word "sophisticated" can in itself give us problems.

Consider a first definition: worldly-wise, not naive, or ingenuous. Some people claim that Americans living abroad, because of their exposure to other cultures, develop an understanding of the world that exceeds the typical American back home. We're laying the foundation here for making Americans abroad into some kind of social elite.

All social elites have problems of their own, and American expatriates, if we think of them as elite, are no exception. In America, one problem is called "latch-key kids", the children with two working parents who are left to more or less fend for themselves. The expatriate spin on the problem is called "TCK" or "third culture kids". These are the children who are sometimes born, but by definition, raised in foreign countries.

There are several groups that offer support and assistance for these "global nomads" as they like to call themselves. They even have their own magazine and alumni network. I like their name: Overseas Brats. Their literature claims they are more attuned to international events and other cultures, which makes them more worldly. This seems to fit the first definition of "sophisticated".

The second definition is far less appealing: characterized by a lack of simplicity or naturalness; refined to the point of being artificial. I haven't met many Americans overseas who are "refined to the point of being artificial", but I see the potential for such a thing occurring.

An example: I recently took part in a practice evacuation of American expatriates from Kuwait. We ended up around the swimming pool at the embassy, watching a couple of fully-clothed guys jump into the deep-end to rescue a small girl who was drowning. When the applause for the two rescuers died down, we somehow got on the subject of the difference between British and American expats. Probably under the influence of too many black and white British empire movies, someone commented that if we were British, we would probably be standing around in a tuxedo and pith helmet, sipping Darjeeling tea or Gordan's gin.

Try as we might, we could only come up with one example of the worldly-wise sophisticated (not refined into being artificial) American expatriate: Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca.

Actually, Ernest Hemingway was our second choice, but he liked to hang out in Havana, which today wouldn't be a good idea. By the end of our mini-summit meeting, we agreed on three things:

1. American expatriates in white tuxedos don't exist anymore, especially here in the Middle East.
2. The world would probably be a better place if they did.
3. If they ever make a sequel to Casablanca, they'll have Humphrey Bogart running an internet cafe.