The 2010 Census – Helping Your Community by Helping Latinos Be Counted …
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The 2010 Census – Helping Your Community by Helping Latinos Be Counted …I just received a letter from Robert Groves, Director for the U.S. Census Bureau. The letter was to let me know my census form was on its way and that the results from the 2010 Census will be used to help each community get its fair share of government funding for highways, schools, health facilities, and many other programs (estimated in 400 billion dollars of government funds).
Census results would also determine how many seats each state is to have in the House of Representatives. My response was important, as it has been the response of every citizen and non-citizen since 1790 when it was first mandated by the Constitution. Yes, the Census is supposed to count every person living in the U.S.
At the bottom of the letter, there were instructions for websites in five other languages on how to get help in filling out the census form when it arrived if your native language were not English. Since I have a computer and can read the English instructions, I followed the drop-down menu of 58 different languages until I found Spanish…
Impressive… a well translated site that is easy to follow with lots of information. I only wondered how many Latinos do have access to a computer. Especially, Latinos working in Agricultural related industries where the significant majority has a limited education, much less a computer. Granted, some do have computers and are definitely following in the trend of Latinos becoming a strong presence in online communities, but in general, this segment of the population would probably get this information by other means. Only residents in cities with a high concentration of Latinos would get bilingual Census forms sent to them.
In an article published by Hispanic Business Magazine in January 2010 - “Census Budget Bigger than Ever, but Officials Predict a Miscount”, the Census Bureau reports the 2000 count missed 1 percent of the population.
Kenneth Prewitt, Head of the U.S. Census estimates the miscount to be bigger than that and predicts the 2010 Census count will miss even more people. According to Mr. Prewitt, this is largely due to the skyrocketing immigrant population, which shot up from 8 million in 2000 to an estimated 12 million in 2008. “That’s a hard population to count”, he said. “They have every reason to be suspicious of the government with the raids and so forth”.
To add to the challenge of an accurate count, a national coalition of Latino evangelical clergy members has been sending out the message to boycott the Census if congress does not pass an immigration reform very soon. They are telling Latinos to not respond to the questionnaire, to not be counted.
What can we do to help in making sure everyone in our communities is counted?
Spread the word about the 2010 Census. Tell your Latino employees about their right to privacy and how important their response is. Tell them that it is safe to fill out the form and that it is important to be counted.
Tell them to tell their friends about the 2010 Census. It is important to all of us.
Let us spread the word and help our communities by helping Latinos be counted in the 2010 Census!
For more information about the 2010 Census go to www.2010.Census.gov
I thank you for reading and for your comments.
Orlando Gil
TCTS
Training Connections-Translation Services
“Helping Bridge the Gap with The Latino Workforce in the Agricultural Industry”
translat@mtcnet.net
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Definitely I consider very important participate to be counted in the 2010 US Census. Surely the data obtained in this Census will help to do a real, integral inmigration reform, to take out from the darkness a high part of us latino community. Thanks!!!
Franklin, Thank you for your comments! I also hope the 2010 Census will help millions of undocumented immigrants out of the shadows. I also agree that an accurate count will help us understand the impact Latinos are having on our communities. Thanks again, Orlando
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