A new outdoor exhibit of 6-foot-high interactive portraits will explore the history of migrant workers’ struggles to attain American citizenship.

The ILR School’s Worker Institute will bring “Stories of Belonging: Central American TPS Workers & the Defiant Struggle to Stay Home in the U.S.” to the Cornell campus Sept. 16-20.

Featuring field interviews, timelines, photography and video, the project’s 18 interactive, QR-coded portraits – each 6 feet by 4 feet and free-standing – explore the idea of home. And they address whether, after decades of working and contributing to America’s economy, the 860,000 people in the U.S. with Temporary Protective Status (TPS) – which gives workers from some countries a legal work permit – feel like they belong in America.

Credit: Provided

“We’re talking about workers who are often ignored,” said Patricia Campos-Medina ’96, M.S. ’97, executive director of ILR’s Worker Institute and lead researcher on the project. “You don’t think about the person who’s cleaning your yard, the owner of your favorite ethnic restaurant, or the worker serving your food. This exhibit is forcing you to look at them and interact with their stories. You can choose to ignore them, but what’s the impact of ignoring their contribution to our economy and our society?”

The exhibition will be open daily from dawn to dusk in ILR’s Thomas P. Golden Courtyard, with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. on Sept. 17. The reception and the exhibition are free and open to the public. The courtyard is accessible from a walkway at the corner of Tower Road and Garden Avenue.

TPS is an immigration status that removes the immediate threat of deportation; however, it only gives workers the right to work legally for 6 to 18 months. The status does not provide a path to permanent residency or citizenship.

The majority – about 325,000 people – of TPS holders are from Central America, Campos-Medina said. They have built their lives in the U.S., owning homes and businesses, paying taxes, engaging in unions and civic organizations, and advocating for their children’s futures.

Several TPS holders featured in the exhibit will attend the Sept. 17 reception with Campos-Medina and Ileen DeVault, professor of labor history at the ILR School.

“Bringing this exhibit to Ithaca helps directly raise issues of immigration in every student’s mind,” DeVault said. “For students in my class on the history of immigration and labor in the U.S., this exhibit will push them to think about how issues raised long ago are addressed, or not addressed, by modern-day policies.”

The project premiered in June at the annual Photoville Festival in Brooklyn, where an estimated 400,000 people visited the exhibit. “It was very impactful for the TPS workers because they felt that they were out in public,” Campos-Medina said. “They don’t want to hide anymore. They felt proud that their stories were being told.”

Concepción Morales, a TPS holder who has lived and worked in the U.S. for 24 years, said in a Photoville interview earlier this year: “My home is here. Although I love my country where I grew up, this is home. It has been in this country where I have formed my family, have my job, my house. It’s where I have settled. I fight for TPS and permanent residency so I can stay home and have a bit of security in my life, in my children’s life.”

After Cornell, the photos will be shown Oct. 7-11 on New Jersey City University’s Jersey City campus.

The project was funded by the Migrations Global Grand Challenge, part of Global Cornell. The mission was to engage communities via research and learning spaces that explore the intersections of racism, dispossession and migration. The community partner for this project was the National TPS Alliance, a national organization that advocates for TPS and its beneficiaries.

The project was led by Campos-Medina, DeVault, artist Sol Aramendi and photojournalist Francely Flores. Additional field research team members include Worker Institute staff: Extension Associate Natalia Navas, Graduate Research Assistant Julia Garcia Guell and Research Fellows Elle Michel and Carly Ann Powers.

Mary Catt is director of communications for the ILR School.