Friend praising white expat children in Asian country
I had lunch with a group of friends, which one of them had recently had spend 4 months abroad in a country in Southeast Asia. She spent extensive time with an American family (white) who had 3 young kids - with two of them being born in the states, and one born in that country. She then goes on to talk about how amazing these kids are for adapting to a new culture, having to wrestle with the identity of both cultures / not feeling like they entirely will fit in to either culture, dealing with visa issues, etc.
Anyways, my friend’s comments infuriated me because what she is describing is such a common experience for immigrants / children of immigrants in America, but for some reason when white people do it, it’s suddenly romanticized? Also, most expat children (these included) are homeschooled or go to international school, so don’t even have the layer of going to school in that country. I tried to comment on it, but I could tell that all the people at the lunch didn’t get it (I suppose not that surprising given that I was the only person of color).
What are folks' thoughts on this? Was I justified in my anger or should I be glad that this friend is recognizing hardships of growing in a country that's not your home country?