Kurds and the 2010 census in United States of America, Part I

Census is a national campaign to count everyone residing in the United States. It is a U.S Constitution requirement to conduct this survey once every 10 years. The census will be held again in 2010 and the census bureau wants to make sure everyone including every race, ethnic group, citizens and non-citizens, refuges and asylums to be counted. It is important for everyone to be counted because the census will determines the population of each state. Based on the census findings, almost 300 billion Federal dollars will get allocated and the numbers of representatives for each state will be determined. These allocations and representations will affect our states for the next 10 years.

The census bureau has acknowledged the difficulties in counting everyone especially within the Refuge and Immigrant communities due to language barriers, confidentiality issues, and distrust in the government and various other reasons. As a result, the census bureau requested the help of refuge and Immigrant organization, communities and local NGOs in promoting the census and helping inform our communities about the importance of being counted in 2010 census.

As local NGOs and local leaders we need to make sure we inform our communities about the importance of being counted in 2010 Census. The census will affect our communities in both National and local levels. In the national level, our state population will determine the number of Representative we have in congress representing our communities and neighborhoods and will determine how much of the 300 billion federal dollars our states gets each year. In short it will determine the power and money each state will receive in the next 10 years. In addition, in the local level, the census will determine where that money will be spent. For example, it will determine the number of schools and hospitals that will be built and where they will be built. It will determine where the roads and public transportation are developed and improved. The census will also determine how much money is allocated for each district including the money our non-profit organizations receive in helping our communities.

The Census Day for 2010 is April 1, 2010. The hope is to count everyone that resides in a place on April 1, 2010. The census survey will be delivered to each household in March 2010. The census will send replacement surveys in April. If the questionnaires are not received back, households will be visited by Census workers around June 2010. In its effort to count everyone, the census bureau has taken important steps to make this census better count everyone than previous census. First of all, it has shortened the census questionnaire to only 10 simple questions. The previous detailed socio-economic data will be collected by the newly established American Community Survey every year. Also, to solve the language barrier problems, the questionnaire will be, for the first time, printed in almost 57 languages. Finally, the census has taken another drastic measure in making this census different than previous census by allowing an individual to self-identify themselves as more than one race or ethnic group. This is very important to our refuge communities. As a member of the Kurdish community, I know this will help our community drastically. It helps us motivate our community to participate in this census because for the first time, if more than 100 households identify themselves as a certain group, then the census results will categorize them as a different group. This helps communities and organizations to get these data about their communities from the 2010 census for statistical purpose.



Some of the simple things we need to do is to first raise awareness about the census. In addition, we need to reassure our communities that it is a simple 10 question survey that will have great impact on their lives. We need to make sure we reassure them that the census is confidential by law. The law states in Title 13, U.S. Code that information collected is used only for statistical purpose only. The census bureau cannot share the collected information with other federal departments, agencies or law enforcement departments. Based on Census Bureau´s statements, disclosing such information will be a felony and there are penalties for such violations of the law including 5 years in prison and/or fines of up to $250,000.

The census bureau has established a partnership program with local NGOs and communities. As partners, any entity can help the census bureau better inform the diverse communities about the 2010 census. As a partner, any organization will have to provide space for ´Be Counted Sites and Questionnaire Assistance Centers´ and providing space for testing and training census employees.

The Kurdish Community in Atlanta, GA has established this partnership with the Census Bureau. More information will be provided about the Kurdish Community efforts in Atlanta, GA and how other Kurdish communities in other states can implement similar efforts in their home states to make sure that everyone in our communities gets counted in 2010 Census.