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AAI Calls for U.S. Census to Include Question on Ancestry

AAI
Posted on Friday April 6, 2007

Coaltion of American Ethnic Organizations Call for Inclusion of Ancestry Question in 2010

WASHINGTON – April 6, 2007 – A coalition of American ethnic organizations and advocates is calling on the U.S. Census Bureau to reconsider its decision not to include a question on ancestry in the 2010 census.

“We are convinced that adding a simple two-line, write-in question on ancestry is a win-win solution for the country,” said Helen Samhan of the Arab American Institute. “It maintains the detail needed on race and Hispanic origin to support monitoring of voting rights and other civil rights legislation, but it adds an important level of detail to our national data when protection of other at-risk groups is required.”

The Ancestry Working Group (AWG) coalition was first organized in the mid 1990s to save the question that measures ethnicity regardless of race on the 2000 census long form, reconvened in 2006 to promote ancestry measurement in the short-form only 2010 survey of the U.S. population.

Members represent ethnic constituencies large and small—from Italian, Polish, Irish and German Americans, to those of Arab, Caribbean, Greek, Armenian, and Iranian descent—who believe including a question on ancestry, along with Race and Hispanic origin, will provide the most inclusive and accurate count of American ethnicity. The AWG has asked members of Congress overseeing the census to carefully review the Census Bureau’s submission of proposed 2010 content and determine if ancestry can be added without jeopardizing the reliability of data on race and Hispanic origin.

Ethnic leaders have been working for years with the U.S. Census Bureau to improve ways to improve participation and data quality of America’s growing ethnic and racial diversity.

“Ancestry data have been collected on the decennial census since 1980,” Samhan added, “and while our members support the collection of other socio-economic data via the new American Community Survey (ACS) we believe ethnicity should be measured of all households, not just a sample.”

The coalition supports a three-part question (race, Hispanic origin and ancestry) on the survey that reaches all households in the country as the only way for the decennial census to be inclusive, comprehensive and a useful tool on the full aspect of American racial and ethnic identity. Specifically, the AWG argues that:

-The 2005 content testing of ancestry at the expense of existing Asian and Hispanic sub group options was counterproductive; a short two-line question on ancestry can and should be added to the existing race/Hispanic origin questions, with no loss to data quality on race;

-With minor adjustments to spacing devoted to questions already on the proposed 2010 Census, a brief write-in question on ancestry should not alter the efficiency or cost effectiveness of the one-page short form;

-The ACS should be supported as the new source of socio-economic and housing characteristics for the nation, but it is not a substitute for the decennial census which is the nation’s largest civic endeavor and which needs buy in from the whole population; adding a short question that allows millions of citizens and residents for whom race alone is not a sufficient or meaningful identity is a direct way to promote buy in and participation and minimize non-response follow up;

-The federal government needs to have accurate, reliable data on groups that may be victims of racial profiling, discrimination or disparate treatment (like persons of Middle Eastern descent) but who are classified as White in the decennial census; the ACS sample size does not allow enough detail on small groups, nor does it allow comparability or trend analysis across decades.