By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(© Journal Group Link International)

Tagalog Dropped From US Census Questionnaire That Is Already Mailed

C HICAGO (JGLi) – In 2000, Filipino or Tagalog was one of the six languages used in questionnaires in the decennial national census of people living in the United States.

This year, Tagalog was dropped in favor of the Russian language. The other languages used are English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese.

Chicago-based Filipino American census complete count volunteer Grace Avellana Villamora cannot explain the decision of the Bureau of Census under the Department of Commerce in replacing her native tongue, beyond saying that, “this should even spur Filipinos to come forward and be counted.”

But Tagalog translation will be handy if someone will call the Census’ Language Assistance Guide, which guarantees to answer 124 other languages on how to complete an English-language census questionnaire. It is available online at 2010census.gov and in Braille and in large print. http://2010.census.gov/partners/materials/inlanguage.php

At an outreach town hall meeting of members of Filipino community last Sunday (March 28) at St. Matthias Church Convent in Chicago’s north side, Ms. Villamora said that in 2000, there were 27,874 Filipinos who lived in Chicago; 54,595 in Cook County, including Chicago, and 14,111 and 6,988 in Du Page and Lake counties, respectively.

The town hall meeting came ahead of April 1, 2010, when people were expected to mail their questionnaires soon after they received it and report their household information. The meeting was co-sponsored by the Asian American Institute, the Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights and Empowerment represented by Jerry B. Clarito and Juanita Salvador-Burris, the St. Matthias Church’s Fr. John Sanaghan and parishioner Roger Odiamar and Teresita Nuval of the Chicago Archdiocese’s Office for Asian Catholics.

A second survey questionnaire will be resent between April 10 and 11 to households that did not return the questionnaire.

On the other hand, Filipino-American Eric Lachica-Furbeyre, senior partnership specialist at the Philadelphia Regional Census Center, told this reporter that the Filipino population in 2000 in Washington, D.C., was 2,714, Virginia, 59,374 and Maryland, 33,179.

Nationally, there were 2,364,815 Filipino population, 11,898,828 Asian population and 281,421,906 total U.S. population in 2000. In 1980, there were 781,895 Filipinos while in 1990, there were 1,406,770.

The New York city-based Asian-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund believes that in 1990, the Asian American population was undercounted by more than one million “at a rate of 3.2%. New York City, as a whole, was undercounted at rate of 3.5%, making it the most undercounted municipality in the nation.”

While 8.4-million Asian Americans were missed, there was double-count among white population among others because the latter have dual residences and children are away from homes.

A ALDEF said New Jersey jumped from having the nation’s sixth to the fifth-largest Asian-American population, surpassing Illinois. There are almost half million Asian Americans in New Jersey. Most are Chinese, Korean, Filipino and Indian. The undercount rate of Asian Americans in New Jersey was 1.7%, more than twice to total undercount rate. In Jersey City, where large Filipino and South-Asian population reside, the under count rate was 3.5%.

While 8.4-million Asian Americans were missed, there was double-count among white population among others because the latter have dual residences and children are away from homes.

The same undercount of Asian Americans appears to have happened in 2000 and could happen this year unless the Obama Administration orders a moratorium for the arrest of illegal immigrants.

“If the Homeland Security will not stop the raids of illegal immigrants, people will be afraid to come forward to mail the questionnaire,” Ms. Villamora said. The questionnaire does not ask for the citizenship or legal status or Social Security number.

Under Title 13 of U.S. Code, Census Bureau personnel are prohibited from sharing confidential information with other government agencies, immigration authorities and law enforcement, and are bound to a lifetime oath swearing to confidentiality or risk five years of prison and $250,000 fine. The records will only be made public after 72 years for genealogical researchers.

Kasia Rivera, partnership specialist for the Chicago Regional Census Center, said it only takes 10 minutes for the average household to complete 10 simple questions. The census form, the shortest in history, is asking households to provide the names of residents and their sex, age and date of birth, race, whether of Hispanic origin, relationship to householder, whether the home is owned or rented, telephone number and two questions needed to ensure an accurate count and good data quality.

Despite the assurance of the law, AALEF has still yet to receive assurances from the Census Bureau over “any enforcement and specific policies and procedures to safeguard confidentiality” and a “legal opinion on the USA Patriot Act and its relation to confidentiality protections.”

AALDEF still cannot forget when the U.S. government used the information from Bureau of Census to locate Japanese who were interned during World War II.

Aside from distrust, according to Ms. Villamora, Filipinos don’t understand the importance of the Census.

She said the accurate count would demonstrate the strength of the Filipinos, will give them bigger voice, will identify language needs and community-specific issues and become a source of political strength that will be sought by politicians.

The ethnic sectors, like Filipinos, will not lose out their fair share of federal and state funds for social services and political representation.

The U.S. government has a budget of $400-B that will base its distribution on the census results for social services, enforcement of civil rights law, requirement of bilingual ballots, apportionment of Congressional seats between state and local legislative redistricting.

 (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net) # # #

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