AALDEF Releases New Report on Census Bureau's 2010 Outreach to Asian Americans
Monday, Aug 16, 2010
Today, the Asian American Legal
Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) released a new report evaluating the Census
Bureau's programs and outreach to Asian Americans in the 2010 Census and
providing recommendations to improve census operations for 2020. A copy
of the report can be downloaded here.
Overall, the 2010 Census appeared to be conducted more effectively than prior
censuses. The Census Bureau built upon past operations and programs to
educate traditionally undercounted communities about the importance of
participating in the census. Such efforts included expanded partnership
and language assistance programs and extensive in-language advertising
campaigns.
While the Bureau generally did a good job, AALDEF identified some problem areas
that should be addressed before the next census. Key recommendations from
AALDEF's report include:
Provide
greater public assurances about confidentiality protections. Despite
the Bureau's numerous statements about the confidentiality of census data,
community groups still needed further assurances. For example, a
letter from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) confirming that the USA
Patriot Act would not override the confidentiality provisions of the
Census Act came very late in the process, and many people were not aware
of DOJ's statements;
Provide
a mechanism for knowledgeable community partners to review translated
materials before they are final. Community leaders complained that
the word for "census" had been poorly translated in Vietnamese and
Bangla;
Develop
promotional materials about the Advance Letter and Be Counted forms to
ensure that limited English proficient households are aware of the ways in
which one could obtain language assistance in filling out the census form;
Incorporate
a prepaid postcard into the Advance Letter so that recipients can mail in
their requests for a translated form;
Provide
centralized, concrete information about the steps that individuals should
take if they do not receive a census form in the mail, and work with
community-based organizations to better publicize language assistance programs;
Expand
efforts to hire bilingual census staff who are well-trained and resemble
the racial, ethnic, and linguistic makeup of various neighborhoods;
Institute
an effective system for issuing outreach grants to census partners;
Establish
community-based census task forces to work with CBOs.
The report has been delivered to
Census Bureau Director Robert Groves. In evaluating the 2010 Census,
AALDEF received valuable feedback from more than 100 Asian American
community-based organizations in fifteen states on their experiences working
with the Bureau.
