Bootlegged Aliens: Immigration Politics on America's Northern Border (Politics and Culture in Modern America)

__Bootlegged Aliens__ explores the history of illegal immigration, migrant labor, and the early formation of U.S. immigration policy along the country's northern border, demonstrating how this often-overlooked region influenced the practices and experiences surrounding illegal immigration in early twentieth-century industrial America. __Bootlegged Aliens__ explores the history of illegal immigration, migrant labor, and the early formation of U.S. immigration policy along the country's northern border, demonstrating how this often-overlooked region influenced the practices and experiences surrounding illegal immigration in early twentieth-century industrial America.

In contemporary discourse, much of the discussion of U.S. border politics focuses on the Southwest. In Bootlegged Aliens, however, Ashley Johnson Bavery considers the North as a borderlands region, demonstrating how this often-overlooked border influenced government policies toward illegal immigration, business and labor union practices around migrant labor, and the experience of being an illegal immigrant in early twentieth-century industrial America. Bavery examines how immigrants, politicians, and employers helped shape national policies toward noncitizen laborers. In the process, she uncovers the northern industrial origins of an exploitative system that emerged on America's border with Canada, whose legacy remains central to debates about America's borders today.

Bavery begins in the 1920s to explore how that decade's immigration restrictions launched an era of policing and profiling that excluded America's foreign born from the benefits of citizenship. On the border between Detroit and Windsor, Canada, this process turned certain Europeans into undocumented immigrants, a group the press and policymakers referred to as bootlegged aliens. Over the next decade, deportation and policing practices stigmatized entire communities of ethnic Europeans regardless of their legal status. Moreover, restrictive laws allowed manufacturers to exploit workers in new ways. By the Great Depression, citizenship had become an invisible boundary that excluded hundreds of thousands of laborers from New Deal entitlements. Accepted wisdom suggests that the 1924 Immigration Act had allowed ethnic Europeans to shed ties to their homelands and assimilate into the "melting pot" of American culture by the 1930s. Bavery challenges this perspective, finding that, instead of forging a common culture with their fellow workers, European immigrants coming through Canada to Detroit faced statewide registration drives, exclusion from key labor unions, and disqualification from the Works Progress Administration, the cornerstone of America's nascent welfare state. In the heart of industrial America, Bootlegged Aliens reveals, citizenship was highly contingent.

In contemporary discourse, much of the discussion of U.S. border politics focuses on the Southwest. In Bootlegged Aliens , however, Ashley Johnson Bavery considers the North as a borderlands region, demonstrating how this often-overlooked border influenced government policies toward illegal immigration, business and labor union practices around migrant labor, and the experience of being an illegal immigrant in early twentieth-century industrial America. Bavery examines how immigrants, politicians, and employers helped shape national policies toward noncitizen laborers. In the process, she uncovers the northern industrial origins of an exploitative system that emerged on America's border with Canada, whose legacy remains central to debates about America's borders today. Bavery begins in the 1920s to explore how that decade's immigration restrictions launched an era of policing and profiling that excluded America's foreign born from the benefits of citizenship. On the border between Detroit and Windsor, Canada, this process turned certain Europeans into undocumented immigrants, a group the press and policymakers referred to as bootlegged aliens. Over the next decade, deportation and policing practices stigmatized entire communities of ethnic Europeans regardless of their legal status. Moreover, restrictive laws allowed manufacturers to exploit workers in new ways. By the Great Depression, citizenship had become an invisible boundary that excluded hundreds of thousands of laborers from New Deal entitlements. Accepted wisdom suggests that the 1924 Immigration Act had allowed ethnic Europeans to shed ties to their homelands and assimilate into the "melting pot" of American culture by the 1930s. Bavery challenges this perspective, finding that, instead of forging a common culture with their fellow workers, European immigrants coming through Canada to Detroit faced statewide registration drives, exclusion from key labor unions, and disqualification from the Works Progress Administration, the cornerstone of America's nascent welfare state. In the heart of industrial America, Bootlegged Aliens reveals, citizenship was highly contingent.

In contemporary discourse, much of the discussion of U.S. borderpolitics focuses on the Southwest. In Bootlegged Aliens,however, Ashley Johnson Bavery considers the North as a borderlandsregion, demonstrating how this often-overlooked border influencedgovernment policies toward illegal immigration, business and laborunion practices around migrant labor, and the experience of beingan illegal immigrant in early twentieth-century industrial America.Bavery examines how immigrants, politicians, and employers helpedshape national policies toward noncitizen laborers. In the process,she uncovers the northern industrial origins of an exploitativesystem that emerged on America's border with Canada, whose legacyremains central to debates about America's borders today.

Bavery begins in the 1920s to explore how that decade'simmigration restrictions launched an era of policing and profilingthat excluded America's foreign born from the benefits ofcitizenship. On the border between Detroit and Windsor, Canada,this process turned certain Europeans into undocumented immigrants,a group the press and policymakers referred to as bootleggedaliens. Over the next decade, deportation and policing practicesstigmatized entire communities of ethnic Europeans regardless oftheir legal status. Moreover, restrictive laws allowedmanufacturers to exploit workers in new ways. By the GreatDepression, citizenship had become an invisible boundary thatexcluded hundreds of thousands of laborers from New Dealentitlements. Accepted wisdom suggests that the 1924 ImmigrationAct had allowed ethnic Europeans to shed ties to their homelandsand assimilate into the "melting pot" of American culture by the1930s. Bavery challenges this perspective, finding that, instead offorging a common culture with their fellow workers, Europeanimmigrants coming through Canada to Detroit faced statewideregistration drives, exclusion from key labor unions, anddisqualification from the Works Progress Administration, thecornerstone of America's nascent welfare state. In the heart ofindustrial America, Bootlegged Aliens reveals, citizenshipwas highly contingent.