AAJC Thanks Census Bureau for Expanding Chinese Hotline
WASHINGTON—The Asian American Justice Center thanked the Census Bureau for quickly responding to its request to expand its Chinese telephone questionnaire assistance hotline.
The Asian American Justice Center received a complaint from the Asian Pacific American Senior Coalition, its community partner in Oregon, that the Census Bureau's Chinese language hotline operators spoke only the Mandarin dialect and could not provide assistance in Cantonese; and that they could not speak English with callers seeking help completing their census forms. This was a problem given that many Chinese Americans speak Cantonese rather than Mandarin.
Upon receiving the complaint, AAJC immediately contacted the Census Bureau. Within days, the Census Bureau had assessed the situation and corrected the problem. The Chinese hotline (1-866-935-2010) now supports both Cantonese and Mandarin.
“AAJC has worked tirelessly to promote census participation among Asian American, Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian communities,” said AAJC President and Executive Director Karen K. Narasaki. “We are happy to see our collaboration with the Census Bureau resulting in solutions in order to help our community members participate in the census – an act everyone knows is vital to promoting secure, strong and healthy communities. We appreciate the Census Bureau’s efforts to reach hard-to-count individuals, including immigrants and people who speak little or no English.”
AAJC co-spearheads the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights’ Census Task Force and is a member of the Commerce Department’s 2010 Census Advisory Committee. AAJC is also a national 2010 Census partner. We are committed to working with the Census Bureau and the Commerce Department to help ensure a full and accurate count.
Census 2010’s success depends on the full participation of everyone living in the United States. We must do all that we can to reach that goal.
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The Asian American Justice Center (www.advancingequality.org) is a national organization dedicated to defending and advancing the civil and human rights of Asian Americans. It works closely with three affiliates – the Asian American Institute of Chicago (www.aaichicago.org), the Asian Law Caucus (www.asianlawcaucus.org) in San Francisco and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (www.apalc.org) in Los Angeles – and 102 community partners in 47 cities and 25 states in the country.
For additional information on this release, please contact:
Leonie Campbell
(202) 492-4591
lcampbell@advancingequality.org
The NRFU phase, which stands for “Non-Response Follow-Up,” is the last in the Census process and represents the final push to collect Census information. The NRFU campaign encourages households who have not returned their Census form to welcome and cooperate with the Census taker that may knock on their door. Messaging for the NRFU campaign assures all that Census takers are sworn to secrecy and that they are there to help.
The NRFU phase, which stands for “Non-Response Follow-Up,” is the last in the Census process and represents the final push to collect Census information. The NRFU campaign encourages households who have not returned their Census form to welcome and cooperate with the Census taker that may knock on their door. Messaging for the NRFU campaign assures all that Census takers are sworn to secrecy and that they are there to help.
The NRFU phase, which stands for “Non-Response Follow-Up,” is the last in the Census process and represents the final push to collect Census information. The NRFU campaign encourages households who have not returned their Census form to welcome and cooperate with the Census taker that may knock on their door. Messaging for the NRFU campaign assures all that Census takers are sworn to secrecy and that they are there to help.
The NRFU phase, which stands for “Non-Response Follow-Up,” is the last in the Census process and represents the final push to collect Census information. The NRFU campaign encourages households who have not returned their Census form to welcome and cooperate with the Census taker that may knock on their door. Messaging for the NRFU campaign assures all that Census takers are sworn to secrecy and that they are there to help.
The NRFU phase, which stands for “Non-Response Follow-Up,” is the last in the Census process and represents the final push to collect Census information. The NRFU campaign encourages households who have not returned their Census form to welcome and cooperate with the Census taker that may knock on their door. Messaging for the NRFU campaign assures all that Census takers are sworn to secrecy and that they are there to help.
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