France-Amérique Interviews David Vermette about his book A Distinct Alien Race

Between 1840 and 1930, a million French-speaking Canadians crossed the U.S. border, many seeking work in the textile mills of New England. This wave of migration scared the United States, argues researcher David Vermette, a Massachusetts native, in his book, A Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco‑Americans. Newspapers ran violent articles against French-Canadian Catholics, and a wild conspiracy theory started to take form, schools and churches were threatened, and the Ku Klux Klan intervened in the region. Clément Thiery of France-Amérique interviews Vermette about this little known episode in U.S. immigration history here.