Census Issues

While the Census is a helpful tool, I think many people are afraid this is just another method of using socio-economic stats against certain minority/majority groups. As a result, I sometimes question the integrity of the information that is obtained through this method. While this is one of the best tools we currently have to obtain valuable information for research in sociolinguistic trends, we must be conscious of the validity of some of the information and factor that into our research.

An example of the negative attitudes toward the Census is the activist group in Roswell that was trying to boycott the Census and was advising immigrants that they should not participate. I think this paranoia should be taken seriously especially when trying to determine how long (i.e. how many generations) a family has been here. Another example is the income bracket they claim to be in which is sometimes either overestimated or underestimated for various reasons. I mention this because in a few articles we have read, these two items seem to be factors in how the investigator is concluding why certain groups retain the language.

I am not against the Census in any way, in fact I think it provides valuable information. However, I think we need to be realistic in just how many people may be hesitant to be truthful if they even fill out the forms at all. The hispanic population seems to be exponentially increasing but many of the members of this population go unaccounted due to fears of self-identifying for fear of deportation.