China News Service, March 30th. According to the United States "World Daily", recently, due to the new crown pneumonia epidemic, many activities in the Chicago area to promote census participation have been blocked. Chen Benen, director of the Chinatown Better Unity Alliance in Chicago, said that some of the previously planned The "face-to-face" promotion of census projects, including community discussions, door-to-door advocacy, and even the distribution of leaflets, have now been temporarily suspended due to "home-based epidemic prevention". Chen Benen said that although the introduction of online conferences and telephone instructions that do not require interpersonal contact has been strengthened to increase the willingness of Chinese people to fill out the form, they are still very worried that the census will underestimate the number of Chinese people.
The Chicago Chinatown area is home to many elderly elders. These ethnic groups who may have language barriers have always been non-profit organizations that promote censuses and are most actively seeking to participate in the census. Chen Benen said that the spread of the epidemic at this stage, coupled with the "Home-Avoided Epidemic" order has been implemented in the entire state of Illinois, and the planned community discussions, visits, and on-site form filling services have been temporarily unavailable.
Chen Benen said that previously it was planned to print more Chinese leaflets and put them in Chinatown supermarkets and stores for the public to request, but now even the printing company that prints the leaflets is not open, and the leaflets cannot be issued smoothly.
A number of Chinese social organizations have also actively promoted participation in the census through social media “WeChat”, but she said that these methods may not be as effective as “face-to-face” instructions and guidance to fill out the form. It will be far worse than expected ", leading to an underestimation of the total population of the community, which will affect the allocation of federal and other funds in the next ten years.
Chicago Chinatown Alliance for Better Solidarity appeals that every household should have received a notification form from the Census Bureau. Please do not discard it after receiving it, because the Census ID on the letter will be Fill in the identification number of the census form.
The Chicago Chinatown Pedder Center explained that the census can be completed in a variety of ways, including: writing in (specific areas), Mandarin Chinese (844) 391-2020, Cantonese special (844) 398-2020, and filling in directly online. Either way, the census number must be provided. The census questionnaire is very short. It only takes about 10 minutes to complete. The questionnaire is also available in Chinese. (Huang Huiling)