Census- WHARTON

On April 1st, I read an article in the New York Times called "Trying to Break Down the Census," by Fernanda Santos that discussed the issues associated with Census returns in New York City. By Wednesday, the rates of return in New York were at 32% in comparison to the National average of 52%. New York City rates of return were expected to be so low due to citizen's misunderstandings of who the Census was geared towards, language barriers, fears of how Census data would be used, and unorthodox living arrangements that abounded in certain areas of the city.

I found some of the information in this article particularly interesting for our family and household studies. For instance, the article touched on unorthodox living arrangements, such as a group of Mexican workers illegally sharing an apartment, that we have yet to discuss in class. The descriptions of illegal living situations in NYC made me question the rules of property ownership that are accepted across the United States. How is property ownership or rent looked at differently in a big city or a small town? How are the rules associated with owning or living in a home or apartment bent, broken or changed circumstantially in certain cities or areas, and for what reasons are illegal living situations allowed to occur?

Many people who had yet to return their Census form were concerned that the information would be passed along to other government agencies and used against them. Before reading this article, I was unaware that the Census bureau desired illegal immigrants to fill out the forms. If the purpose of the Census is to create better schools, hospitals, transportation, and services for citizens, in what ways will understanding the distribution of illegal immigrants help the government provide better services to tax-paying, legal citizens?

Overall, the article made me question the ability of the Census to truly impact the living situation of those who probably really need better services and changes in their neighborhoods. If the Census is not receiving data from recent immigrants living in lower class, inner city neighborhoods, than how will the living conditions for future generations of these people truly be bettered by Census efforts? And also, is the Census too specific? Do the questions not address the sometimes incredibly loose definitions of "household" that abound in poor, urban areas?