Immigrants forge new life in region
Craig Kelly
The fact that immigration is a cornerstone of the foundation of the United States cannot be disputed. From the earliest explorers to the 1607 Jamestown settlement to the Puritan arrival in 1620 to the growth of what would eventually become the original 13 states and beyond, this country owes much of its present state to those who left their homeland behind to forge a new life.
That scenario continues to be played out in modern-day America, as thousands of people around the world make the decision to call the United States their home every year. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, more than 990,000 people obtained lawful permanent resident status in the U.S. in 2013, with almost 14,000 of those taking up residence in Ohio. In that same year, almost 780,000 people became naturalized citizens, 10,664 of them living in Ohio, and almost 70,000 people arrived in this country as refugees.
The reasons behind the decisions to immigrate to this country are as varied as the immigrants themselves. For some, it comes down to love, while others seek to flee poverty or persecution or to pursue an education. Whatever the motivation, they have all chosen to create a life here.
For some, that life is here in west central Ohio. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that in 2013, 1.6 percent of Allen County residents, or just under 1,700 people, were foreign-born, 537 of them living in Lima.
So, why Ohio? Why here?
Meet Lydia
Lydia Brenneman is a full-time chaplain at St. Rita’s Medical Center. However, her roots trace back to the Middle East, having been born in Bethlehem to a Christian family and raised in Jerusalem, but she would not say she’s from Israel.
“We Palestinians like to call it Palestine because one day, we hope for independence,” she said. “My address is via Israel.”
Brenneman was one of seven children, with her father serving as a pastor and her mother as a nurse. Growing up in the West Bank, living in the United States was not in her family’s plans until one fateful event.
“I lived through the Six-Day War in 1967,” she said. “My aunt lived in New Jersey and she kept writing us, saying, ‘If life is bad over there with the war, why don’t you come to the U.S. and I’ll sponsor you?’ Another reason we came is education. My father believed very much in education.”
After two years of working through paperwork, an 11-year-old Brenneman and her family made it to New Jersey in December, 1969, but there were sacrifices made along the way.
“Because my father lived through two wars [in 1948 and 1967] all of his documentations of education were burnt,” she said. “So when we came to the U.S., he could not be a pastor. He could not even prove he was a high school graduate, so he just took labor jobs.”
While the family was grateful to be out of harm’s way, there were still adjustments that needed to be made.
“I didn’t know English very well,” she said. “I had to go to ESOL [English for Speakers of Other Languages] classes. It was very frustrating at times, and some kids would make fun of me.”
However, once she did master the language and became a citizen after six years. Brenneman’s life would soon change again, with her desire to obtain a master’s degree in counseling bringing her to Bowling Green State University after spending more than 10 years in New Jersey.
“I had an aunt that lived in Wapakoneta, so I would live with her and drive back and forth to school every day,” she said.
The move to Ohio would introduce her to her eventual husband, Bryce, originally from Elida. They have now been married for 29 years and have three children.
Living in a politically volatile Middle East has given Brenneman a very broad perspective on citizenship.
“I have a Jordanian passport, an Israeli residency card and a U.S. passport,” she said. “I still call myself Palestinian, but my children, though, are Arab-Americans.”
As Brenneman has made a life for herself here in Ohio, she faced the same question of reconciling her cultural identity faced by many people who make their home in a new country.
“Am I American or Arab?” she said. “I have decided that I want to take the best of both worlds, so there are some things that I really like about my Arab tradition that I hold onto, and there are some things that I let go of.”
In the same way, Brenneman admits that not everything about the United States is perfect, but there is one thing she appreciates most of all about living here.
“Freedom,” she said, “freedom to write, freedom to speak, freedom to travel.”
Source: limaohio.com