China Overseas Chinese Network, August 20. According to the US Overseas Chinese News Network, the deadline for the 2020 census has been advanced to September 30, but the average participation rate of the New York City census is still lower than the national level. The New York City Census Office (NYC Census2020) held an East Asian media roundtable on August 18, local time, re-emphasizing the importance of complete census counts and calling on minority immigrant communities including Asians to fill out the questionnaire as soon as possible.
Amit Singh Bagga, deputy director of the New York City Census Office, said that the Trump administration recently announced that it will advance the 2020 Census, which was originally scheduled to end on October 31, to September 30. There are huge challenges and pressures, especially immigrant communities with low participation rates will face the risk of not being fully counted. Bai Jia pointed out that the accuracy of the census count determines the amount of federal funding for each state and the number of seats in each state's Congress, which affects related community needs such as education departments, food stamp subsidy programs, banking institutions, and hospital services. Every loss count will directly affect the direction and development of society in the next 10 years.
The data shows that as of August 17, local time, the self-response rate of the New York City Census was 55.9%, which was lower than 59% in New York State and 63.8% nationwide. The response rate of many immigrant communities, including Chinese, was even higher. low. In terms of the response rate of Chinese Americans, the overall response rate of Chinese Americans in New York City is 50.3%. The response rate of Flushing is 50.8%, the response rate of Chinatown is 53.7%, and the response rate of Sunset Park is only 40.5%.
Howard Shih, Director of Research and Policy at the Asian-American Alliance, said that since early August, commissioners of the Census Bureau have begun knocking on the doors of people who have not responded, but they are still encouraged to use online, telephone, etc. more quickly Way to participate. Shi Haowei also reminded the public to guard against fraud. The census questionnaire will not ask about the person’s immigration or citizenship status, driver’s license information, social security number, bank account or credit card number, political organization, or asking for money and donations.
If the public encounters the above problems when filling in, they can call the New American Hotline in New York State to report. Wang Yilin, the cultural liaison of the New York City Census Office, reminded that people can fill out the census questionnaire online using mobile phones, computers, etc., and people of Chinese descent can also dial the Mandarin or Cantonese hotline to help complete the census. (Yang Chengyu)