Groups encourage Arab Americans to fill out census

Описание: (4 May 2020) At a Michigan gas station, the message is obvious — at least to Arabic speakers: Be counted in the 2020 census.
As state officials and nonprofit groups target hard-to-count groups like immigrants, people of color and those in poverty, many Arab Americans say the undercount is even more pronounced for them.
That means one of the largest and most concentrated Arab populations outside the Middle East — those in the Detroit area — could be missing out on federal funding for education, health care, crime prevention and other programs that the census determines how to divvy up.
That also includes money to help states address the fallout from the coronavirus.
"We're really trying to encourage people. And also not just to encourage people to fill out the census generally, but to encourage people to fill out the census in light of what is happening with COVID-19," said Rima Meroueh (MAIR'-eh-way), director of policy and advocacy with Dearborn-based ACCESS, one of the largest Arab American advocacy nonprofits in the country.
The Arab American community checks many boxes that census and nonprofit officials say are hallmarks of the hardest-to-count communities: large numbers of young children, non-English speakers, recent immigrants and those who often live in multifamily or rental housing.
Some in the Arab community have raised concerns about government questions over their citizenship status if they participate, though that is not part of the form. Many have reported extra scrutiny since the Trump administration issued a ban on travelers from several predominantly Muslim countries in 2017 — creating an overall chilling effect when it comes to interacting with the government.
"They don't trust the current administration. They don't trust what they're going to do with the information. And when you look at the so-called Muslim ban that was put in, people don't want to be on the government's radar," said Abdullah Haydar, a Detroit-area resident who assisted some elderly relatives in filling out their forms.

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