Census Outreach to Undocumented Immigrants

Oscar Avila writes for the Chicago Tribune:

The Spanish-language soap “Mas Sabe El Diablo” (“The Devil Knows Best”) soon will treat viewers to more than the typical vixens and hunks.

A main character is set to become a census worker, a lackluster job more associated with tallying neighbors on the block than notches on the bedpost.

The Telemundo network sees the unusual casting not as a ratings grabber but as an awareness campaign underscoring concerns that the once-a-decade tabulation of the nation’s population faces especially severe challenges in counting minorities and hard-to-reach communities in Chicago and elsewhere.

Since the 2000 census, the dismantling of Chicago Housing Authority developments and a wave of home foreclosures have scattered residents, including many African-Americans, throughout the six-county area.

Meanwhile, federal authorities have stepped up arrests of undocumented immigrants, leading to worries that those residents will remain underground rather than report their presence to a federal census worker. Hence, the soap plot line, in which an unwed mother takes a census job and in the process educates her family — and immigrant viewers — about the government count.

“We’re going wherever the viewers are, even though you’re combining something that’s a little different with the steamy telenovela,” network spokeswoman Michelle Alban said.

In the midst of the challenges, the government agencies and non-profit groups that typically organize outreach are facing decimated budgets just months before the census takes place in the spring.

That means areas without money to undertake extensive outreach efforts might miss out on a helping hand to climb out of the recession because they will not get their share of about $400 billion in federal aid allocated each year strictly on population, such as unemployment benefits. Click here for the rest of the story. Click here for the rest of the story.

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