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PHOTOS BY BARBARA BEIRNE. IMAGES COURTESY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION TRAVELING EXHIBITION SERVICE

CHEALEN, 18; LILIN, 17; AND PEOMALIKA TAV, 14. In Cambodia students do not study, because even if you have a higher education, you cannot find a job or make good money. The government does not pay the people well. Also, the justice system is not working. People rob each other, and there are many kidnappings. You have to pay a lot of money to get your child back. We came here to find a safe place. Our life in America is very different. We already have a grocery store.

‘Becoming American: Teenagers and Immigration’

Teens’ immigration experience told through photos and in their own words in new exhibit at Washington State History Museum

By Matt Nagle

Amid all the debating and the often-clashing views on the hot-button topic of immigration in America these days, it’s easy to forget about the people behind the headlines – the immigrants themselves. What is coming to America like from the newcomer’s perspective, especially young people coming here for a fresh start? The Washington State History Museum takes an in-depth look into the hopes and dreams of these new arrivals in its newest exhibit “Becoming American: Teenagers and Immigration” opening March 22.

In this exhibit, 59 teenagers share their stories through pictures and their own words. Documentary photographer Barbara Beirne photographed these first-generation immigrants in their own communities and let them tell their own stories in brief vignettes about how they got here and what they hope to achieve for themselves and their families.

Sisters Chealen, 18, Lilin, 17, and Peomalika Tav, 14, say they came to the United States from Cambodia for better educational opportunities and to escape rampant crime that plagues their country. “People rob each other, and there are many kidnappings. We came here to find a safe place.”

Ishmael Alleyne, 17, wrote: “My parents’ sole reason to emigrate from Barbados to the United States was to give my brother and me more opportunities and a better life. They have made many sacrifices, and I hope to make them proud and never let them down.”

A documentary photographer for more than 25 years, Beirne has traveled the world with her camera. She has produced incredible photo essays of women in Southern Appalachia and children in war-torn Belfast, Northern Ireland (both available for viewing on her website at www.barbarabeirne.com). She became interested in immigration in 1999 while on assignment to document Kosovar Albanian refugees being airlifted from camps in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to military housing at Fort Dix, NJ. While the refugees were at Fort Dix the press was allowed in.

“I got to know mostly teenagers because they were the ones who knew the most English,” Beirne recalled. She was touched by how the refugees arrived here with so little. “They came to this country with small plastic bags filled with their possessions.”

Her heart went out to them and she couldn’t help but become personally involved. For the next six years she continued photographing young immigrants, which ultimately resulted in the exhibit now at the History Museum.

“They’re just wonderful young people and they’re looking for people to be interested in their stories because they want Americans to know how grateful they are to be here. I was thrilled to be able to get to know them,” Beirne said. She’s kept in touch over the years with numerous of her young subjects. She hopes viewers of “Becoming American” will also be inspired by what they see and read.

“I hope that in seeing the faces and reading about the experiences that viewers will be reminded of their own ancestors and how (their ancestors’) experience relates to the immigrant experience today.

“I hope, too, that (the exhibit) will influence the way they treat immigrants, to be welcoming to them as they would have wanted their ancestors to be welcomed.”

As viewers peruse “Becoming American,” a film titled “In Our Voices” will be showing, a collection of interviews with local Asians and Pacific Islanders who talk about their own immigration experience. Funded through a grant from the Smithsonian Community Grant Program, “In Our Voices” was developed in partnership with Asia Pacific Cultural Center (APCC) and Bates Technical College.

APCC Executive Director Phil Chang was there during the filming. He said he learned a lot from listening to the stories local Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese had to tell, especially in how similar their immigration experiences have been as all of them arrived here as teenagers. “It’s interesting because they range in age from early 20s through mid-50s yet their immigrant experience has been very similar. They talk about basically the same thing,” like how tough it was learning the English language, Chang said. The film also examines the immigrants’ relationship to their culture and what parts of it they’ve retained.

Chang said the film will be used in APCC’s educational “Cultural Treasure Trunk” program that volunteers take to schools to help students at the 5th-8th grade level increase their knowledge and understanding of Asian and Pacific Islander cultures.

“Becoming American: Teenagers and Immigration” will be on view until June 1. For more information, call (888) 238-4373 or www.wshs.org.

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