Title: MICHIGAN COMMISSION ON DISPLACED PERSONS COLLECTION Type: Papers Size: 47 Manuscript boxes |
Ø Subject |
HEFA.02.update
Scope & Contents
The papers comprising the Displaced Persons Collection were deposited with the Labor History Archives in January1965 by Florence Cassidy, Secretary of the Michigan Commission on Displaced Persons and Refugees.
After the passage of the Displaced Persons Act, the Michigan Commission on Displaced Persons was established in 1949 by Executive Order of Gov. G. Mennen Williams. Prior to the passage of this Act in 1948, various volunteer agencies in Michigan had been active in resettling regular quota immigrants; and the Michigan Committee on Displaced Persons (an inter-organizational committee) had campaigned for the passage of legislation to admit displaced persons outside of the quota.
The Commission worked jointly with Michigan sponsors, with volunteer agencies, and with the Federal and State governments in resettling displaced persons and refugees. Its main functions were those of coordination and central information in such areas as housing, transportation, employment, legislation, and education. It also investigated the responsibility of individuals and organizations, which were sponsoring displaced persons.
The name of the Commission was changed to the Michigan Commission on Displaced Persons and Refugees after the passage of the Refugee Relief Act in 1953. In 1960 the Commission recommended to Gov. John B. Swainson that he establish a Michigan Commission on Refugees, which would serve on a stand-by basis.
The Displaced Persons Collection covers the period from 1937 to 1965.
Detroit Committee on Refugees
Federal Displaced Persons Commission
International Refugees Organization
Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, and Cuban refugees
Licensing of immigrant physicians
McCarran-Walter Act and other legislation affecting immigrants and refugees
Mexican immigrants in Michigan Wartime aliens
Boxes Description
1-2 Series I. Special Projects Involving Aliens and Recently Naturalized Citizens, 1940-1947. Correspondence, interviews, clippings, reports, and memoranda. Includes information on Mexican immigrants in Michigan and “I Am An American Day.” To Series 1
3-6 Series II. Michigan Committee on Displaced Persons, 1946-1951.
Booklets, pamphlets, correspondence, minutes, clippings, speeches, legislative bills, radio addresses, resolutions, and reports. To Series 2
7-18 Series III. Michigan Commission on Displaced Persons, 1949-1960.
Correspondence, reports, clippings, press releases, memoranda, minutes, transmittal letters of assurance, and lists of new arrivals. Includes the “Report of the Michigan Commission on Displaced Persons and Refugees, 1949-1960,” which discusses the background, functions, and accomplishments of the Commission. To Series 3
19-25 Series IV. Refugee Records, 1953-1965. Correspondence, clippings, legislation, reports, minutes, list of arrivals, and press releases. To Series 4
26-29 Series V. Michigan Committee on Immigration, 1951-1964.
Legislation, correspondence, minutes, bulletins, financial records, statements, hearings, and reports. To Series 5
30-47 Series VI. Interpreter Releases, 1937-1964.
1) “Interpreter Releases” - statistical and other information compiled and printed by: - Foreign Language Information Service, 1937-1940.
- Common Council for American Unity, 1941-1959.
- American Council for Nationalities Services, 1960-1964.
2) Miscellaneous information Bulletins. To Series 6