By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

Kentwood resident Sagar Dangal understands people’s hesitation about filling out the U.S. Census. When he saw his first census in 2010, his reaction was much the same.

“I remember when I first saw it, I was like what is the census?” said Kentwood resident Sagar Dangal. “I’m not going to fill this out.”

Flash forward 10 years to 2020, he is not only filling out his own census questionnaire but working within the Bhutanese community to build a bridge of understanding about the U.S .Census and its importance. 

This is not an easy task. Concerned over the Nepali minority in Bhutan, the Bhutanese government conducted a census targeting the Nepali community within the country. Due to persecution, many of the Bhutanese Nepali fled the country with a large population, 85 percent of the refugees, eventually settling in the United States.

“The issue of illegal immigrants and the concern of deportation is not something of a concert with the Bhutanese community,” Dangal said, adding most are U.S. citizens having come to the United States in 2007/2008. The older generation still remembers what happened in Bhutan, Dangal said, and that is where the education of what the census is becomes important.

“Once you explain what it is, that it is a count of the people, and not about ethnicity, but rather to assure that your community is getting the funding it needs, then people are more open to it,” Dangal said.

Daniela Rojas, fund development and communication manager of the West Michigan Hispanic Center of Commerce said she has found the same with the Hispanic community.

“Response has been pretty positive,” Rojas said. “People may not understand what it is or how it impacts their daily lives, but they are not seeing it as a negative.”

Rojas admitted that the true test will come if people respond by filling out the census in March and April.

A hurdle for the Hispanic community has been concern that census would be use to find illegal citizens even though the question of U.S. citizenship has been removed from the census.

“Of course, we are living in a time of fear and distrust, but I believe we have done well in helping people understand that this is how federal money will impact the next 10 years,” Rojas said.

The West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is one of many agencies that has received grant funding from the Heart of West Michigan United Way to help with the U.S. Census. The Chamber has been canvassing communities, giving out materials in Spanish and English and “I Count” buttons at various events, and does work on social media. The organization handed out more than 3,000 flyers at August’s Hispanic Festival. 

“We are making sure that people know that the information gathered is helpful not hurtful,” Rojas said, adding that the biggest hurdle has been the lack of smartphones, WiFi and other electronic devices where people could go on their own to learn more about the census. The other challenge has been reaching people who have “thrown up their hands on the census and the government because they really don’t see where it matters.”

The census does matter, according to Kerry Ebersole, executive director at 202 Census, State of Michigan.

“Every person is profoundly impacted by the the U.S. Census as it is the gold standard in how the federal government distributes its funding,” Ebersole said.

For the State of Michigan, it is about $30 billion from the federal government that is distributed to the state. This covers funding for a number of items such as health care, school lunches, Meals on Wheel, transportation, along with determining representation in the U.S. House and the Michigan House and Senate.

Helping to spread the word about what the census, the U.S. Census Bureau recently announced an extensive advertising campaign that features ads focused on several minority groups such as the Hispanic population. The 2020census.gov site also includes content and guides in 59 languages, such as Nepali, Dutch, Greek, Spanish, and Swahili, with residents able to respond to the nine census questions online and by phone in 13 languages. The entire 2020census.gov site includes information in both English and Spanish.

To help make sure Michigan citizens are counted, the State of Michigan has established its own website, michigan.gov/census2020 and on social media can be found by searching for Mi Census.