For the first time, the United States Census aims to collect responses in Arabic in 13 languages: NPR

Arabic speakers – one of the fastest growing languages ​​in the United States – will have one less barrier to participating in the next 2020 census.

For the first time, the federal government plans to officially collect census responses in Arabic, as well as six other new language options for enumeration, including French, Haitian Creole, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish. Tagalog.

These new additions add to English, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese in a total of 13 languages, more than double the number of speakers. options available for the last count.

"This is a huge leap forward from what we did in 2010, by increasing the number of languages ​​for the Internet and the telephone," said Jennifer Kim, deputy division chief of the Census Bureau, who oversees an office. centralized created in 2016 for the translation of the census. forms.

Reply "alone"

For the number of people in 2020, this office focuses on languages ​​other than English spoken in about 60,000 households or more with limited English skills. Paper forms will be available in English and Spanish, while the office will collect responses in the other 11 languages ​​online and by phone. Video and print guides will also be available in 59 languages ​​other than English, and a video in US sign language, as well as a printed guide in Braille.

Allowing households to participate in the census in the language of their choice helps the government fulfill its constitutional mandate of bringing all people living in the United States together once a decade. These days, this includes more than a million people who speak Arabic at home, of which over a third do not speak English "very well," according to the latest estimates from the American Community Survey of the office.

The supply of several languages ​​could also reduce the number of enumerators needed to collect information from in-person households, one of the most expensive elements of enumeration.

"The more languages ​​we have, the more people are able to respond on their own," Kim explained.

The "barrier" of the online connection

Some leaders of the Arab-American community fear, however, that many Arabic speakers avoid taking part in the census next year, even with an online form available in modern standard Arabic.

"This is a huge step in the right direction," said Rawaa Nancy Albilal, President and CEO of the Brooklyn, NY, Arab-American Family Support Center. "However, there is still a huge risk that Arab immigrant communities of North African and South Asian descent will be underestimated."

This could compromise the accuracy of population figures that guide the distribution of federal funding for schools and other public services in local communities. The new census figures will also determine the share of each state in congressional seats and electoral college votes for the next decade.

"We are trying to level the playing field so that members of our community are taken into account, and connecting it online will create an obstacle," said Albilal.

She fears that many Arabic speakers with whom her organization works do not have reliable internet access.

Question of worried citizenship

There are also concerns about an issue the Trump administration wants to include in the census: "Is this person a citizen of the United States?"

The administration argued that the answers to the question could help to better apply the protections provided by the law on the right to vote against discrimination of racial and linguistic minorities.

Two federal judges in New York and California, however, rejected this explanation and ended the addition of the question, which, according to the Census Bureau's research, would reduce the participation of households composed of non-citizens.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide on the fate of the issue by June.

Federal law prohibits the Census Bureau from sharing an individual's responses to the census with other government agencies, including immigration authorities and other law enforcement agencies, up to a maximum of one year. 39 to 72 years after the collection of information.

But Albilal said many Arabic-speaking families still fear that answers to a citizenship question could be used against them.

"This is not a surprise, of course," she added. "The families we serve must already deal with deportation and family separation on a daily basis, which affects their daily lives."

Not an "easy" choice

Rowya Alzandani resumed her life in New York after leaving Yemen a few years ago. She recently started taking English classes at the US-Arab Family Support Center, which also provides health services and legal advice to immigrant families, many of whom are from the Middle East.

According to Ms. Alzandani, having an Arabic option for the 2020 census makes her more comfortable participating in enumeration.

"I would like any form of government to be in Arabic, if it is in Arabic, we will understand it correctly and we will answer you correctly," she said in Arabic.

Participating in the census, she added, could improve the lives of her four children.

"If we do not answer the census, we will not have a precise count of the number of Arabs living here," she said.

For Alzandani, answering questions about the 2020 census will, as she pointed out in English, "easy" unless it ultimately involves a citizenship issue.

That, she says, would cause her to think twice before answering.