Bootlegged Aliens: How Undocumented Immigrants from Canada in the 1920s Shaped American Immigration Policy Tales from the Reuther Library

Dr. Ashley Johnson Bavery explains how undocumented European immigrants coming over the Canadian border to work in the Detroit auto industry in the 1920s and 1930s spurred nativist discourse, influenced government policies toward illegal immigration, and shaped how business and labor unions used and positioned migrant labor. Dr. Bavery is Assistant Professor of History at Eastern Michigan University and author of Bootlegged Aliens: Immigration Politics on America’s Northern Border.

Related Collections:

AFL-CIO Metropolitan Detroit Records

Joe Brown Papers

Civil Rights Congress of Michigan Records

Richard Frankensteen Papers

International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit Records

Henry Kraus Papers

James Lindahl Papers

Maurice Sugar Papers

United Community Services Central Files

Related Resources:

Bavery, A.J. (2020). Bootlegged Aliens: Immigration Politics on America’s Northern Border. University of Pennsylvania Press.

Episode Credits

Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English

Interviewer: Dan Golodner

Interviewee: Ashley Johnson Bavery

Music: Bart Bealmear