Millions of American households this month will receive a mailed invitation from the U.S. Census Bureau to participate in the every-10-years effort to count everyone in the country. Julie Dowling has been part of that effort as a five-year member of the Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations, which she now chairs. She’s also a professor of Latina/Latino studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has studied how Mexican Americans, in particular, answer census questions on race and ethnicity. She spoke with News Bureau social sciences editor Craig Chamberlain.

We’re told the census is important, but why?

The census count determines how many congressional representatives your state receives, as well as how much federal funding goes to your state. Additionally, these numbers impact funding and political representation within the state government, and can affect local planning for everything from schools to businesses.

Hence, the census is absolutely critical for political representation and resource allocation. The numbers collected by the 2020 census could alter our political landscape for decades to come. And for this reason it is critical for everyone to respond.

There will be no citizenship question on the census, despite well-publicized efforts to add one. What effect do researchers and census planners think that might have and what steps are being taken to address it?

Yes, importantly there will be no citizenship question on the census. However, there was more than 18 months of media coverage of this proposed question, and there is no doubt that this will have an impact on the 2020 census. We are still seeing people confused about this.

So a big part of outreach in communities with a higher number of immigrants will be emphasizing that the citizenship question will not be on the form. Another key message will be that the Census Bureau cannot share your information with any other federal agency, including immigration.

There’s another question that was advocated by numerous researchers, including you, but will not appear on the 2020 census. What issue was this question designed to address?

The census form had two questions regarding race and ethnicity: a Latino/Hispanic origin question and a race question. The race question had response options for white, black, American Indian or Alaska Native, various Asian national origins, and a “some other race” option. There was no “Latino/Hispanic” or “Middle Eastern and North African” (MENA) racial option.

A number of data quality issues have resulted from the lack of racial options for these groups, as many Latinos, for example, either do not answer the race question, select “other,” or identify as “white” when this does not capture their identity – something that came through in my own research.

Dowling's 2014 book explored how Mexican Americans respond to the census.

Book cover courtesy University of Texas Press

Over the last decade, the Census Bureau has tested better ways to ask the race and ethnic origin questions, and a proposal to change the format was submitted to the Office of Management and Budget in 2017. The proposed new format would have combined race and Latino/Hispanic origin into one question where the respondent could check “all that apply.” The format included both a Latino/Hispanic and MENA option and allowed whites and blacks to indicate their ethnic origins – for example, Irish, Italian, African American, Nigerian.

The OMB did not act on the proposed new question format, however, and thus the Census Bureau was not allowed to use the combined Latino/Hispanic-and-race question or add the MENA option in the 2020 census – though whites and blacks will be able to indicate ethnic origins.

What will be the result?

The failure to act on the proposed question was a devastating blow to the census, as testing has shown the new format better captured people’s identities, made the question easier to answer and resulted in better quality data for these groups. For the 2020 census, the bureau will have to use the old “separate questions” format that many find frustrating, confusing and inaccurate in reflecting our country’s diversity.

This will also impact responses to the census, in that anything that creates confusion among respondents is an impediment to filling out the form and can lead to undercounts. That is, people who find the race question does not provide an option for them may not answer the form.

It’s important for those working on outreach in the coming weeks to communicate that people can utilize the “other race” option and write in whatever they would like for their race. If their identity is not reflected by the options presented, they should know that they can write it in.

Editor’s notes:

To reach Julie Dowling, call 217-265-5502; email dowlingj@illinois.edu.

Dowling’s research has focused on the U.S. census and how definitions of race and ethnicity are understood by Latinos, some of which she explored in her 2014 book “Mexican Americans and the Question of Race.”