A dear friend of mine (great guy who i've known since high school), asked me the following questions:
Is the pro-immigrant movement anti-Census, and if so, why? I'm curious to know what the anti-Census perception is and why people would avoid it.My Response:
A lot of this has to do with frustration with the democratic party: people in many immigrant communities believe the democrats have abandoned them in terms of policy changes and only pay attention to these communities when they have something to gain. The gain via census for the democrats is, potentially, more congressional districts in immigrant communities. Therefore, now that the democratic party, often under the guise of civic and non-profit organizations, is all hot over "everyone counts" some pro-immigrant folks, mostly from faith communities, are calling for census abstinence as pay-back for the general abandonment of these communities by elected officials.
There are some brave folks pushing for abstaining from the census effectively saying that the democrats have had long enough to move some immigration reform legislation forward but failed. Therefore, these folks are willing to shake the bridge of sorts which exists between immigrant communities and the democrats.
On the opposite side are all the elected officials and their lackeys, such as most nonprofit organizations, hyping the census under the accurate notion that everyone must be counted. of course, that's nice and simple and obfuscates the fact that the people telling immigrants to skip the census have a good point.
i guess the census becomes an issue to immigrant communities because, yes, they deserve to be counted. But as always, the question is who benefits. In this case, it's the democratic party because immigrants are generally treated as a democratic party constituency. all this gets further complicated though when we note that immigrant populations are growing in places like Kentucky, Georgia, and South Carolina (from what I've read). That growth could force the GOP to rethink their anti-immigrant xenophobia....but for now, this xenophobia drives immigrants, generally, to mostly support the democrats.
Phew! Finally, and most saliently, this issue of census participation or not points to the fundamental flaw of US democracy: we are in a two party system where people are treated as pawns because these people don't have a political option or a social movement which will champion them. You'll notice that the community organizer in the White House only mobilized folks to get him into office...after that, these folks had no use. Same with the census, once undocumented folks are counted, they will be forgotten...until there's a political expediency to make us "remember" them.
Same with the census: some people insist that an accurate count of undocumented folks will lead to better funded schools, heath care, and government services. Those people must not live in California or take a little too much Zoloft. The truth is that with the privatization of former government functions (lax regulation, privatization, charter schools, et al) and the absurd obsession with reducing the deficit (another rich topic), it's highly unlikely that any funds resulting from the census will improve the lot of Californians...particularly not the lives of undocumented folks.
Hope that makes sense and there are some great folks doing census work who deserve a lot of respect. Additionally, I'm happy census is happening because it seems to be the only job creation the administration is willing to engage in (even though it's low pay and i think no benefits). Furthermore, it's one of the few times the US public is reminded that the government should be providing basic services.
