Census 2010 is EASY, IMPORTANT & SAFE

April 1st, 2010 is officially Census Day. This happens every ten years. On this day, the US Census Bureau attempts to count everyone in the United States in order to determine political representation, identify community needs, collect demographic information and allocate government funding. Census data is also used when planning for vital services such as senior programs, hospitals, schools, employment training centers and much more. Despite the importance of each person completing Census forms, many in our community remain uncounted. In fact, during the last Census in 2000 the Asian Pacific Islander population was greatly under-counted which resulted in an estimated $2.1 billion loss in federal funding in California.

Some of the main issues facing Filipino newcomers that can contribute to a Census undercount are: 1) fear of complicating or revealing their immigration status (per the Migration Policy Institute, there are more than 1 mil. undocumented Filipinos in the U.S.); 2) fear of complicating their employment or financial stability, especially in an economic crisis; 3) language access barriers; 4) suspicion there is no confidentiality; and 5) negative prior experiences in the Philippines with government-run programs.

None of the above should be a barrier to completing the Census questionnaire. The collected information is, by law, confidential. Individual information will not be shared with anyone, including other federal and law enforcement agencies. Download this fact sheet for FAQs about the API community and Census 2010 called 10 Minutes, 10 Questions to help improve our community.

What’s new about the Census in 2010?

This time around, the Census questionnaire has only 10 questions, the shortest form yet. The Census Bureau is focusing on reaching under counted communities such as ours and will begin mailing forms to households in the months of February and March. To request a form in Tagalog, please contact us for assistance at (510) 465-9876. To view a sample Tagalog questionnaire, please click here.

Return your completed forms to the Census Bureau by April 1st–it’s EASY, IMPORTANT & SAFE.

Census 2010 Nasa Ating mga Kamay

Graphic designed by: Henry Smith

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 11:46 am and is filed under Front Page Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.