ANA Members Oppose Addition of Citizenship Question for 2020 Census

Opponents of the citizenship question believe it will create an environment of fear and distrust in immigrant communities and depress response to the census from noncitizens and even legal immigrantsamp160 That runs the risk of nonrespondent bias by significantly undercounting immigrant minorityamp160and lowincome populationsamp160 Census costs could rise as increased nonresponse would lead to an increase in inperson followupsamp160 Of most importance if immigrants and others eg their families even if citizens avoid the national headcount the census results will be flawedThe ANA surveyed members of three committees whom we felt would be most knowledgeable and interested in this issue Data ampamp Measurement Committee Legal Affairs Committeeamp160and Multicultural Marketing ampamp Diversity Committeeamp160 In total 144 members responded with key findings as followsAwareness of the issue is mixed63 percent of total respondents are aware that the US Department of Commerce has approved a proposal to add a citizenship question to the 2020 US CensusANA members broadly oppose the citizenship questionAmong those aware that the Commerce Department has approved the proposal to add a citizenship question to the 2020 US Census 60 percent oppose it and 13 percent support it while 27 percent don39t know enough to have an opinionamp160 Looked at another way among the total respondents with the knowledge to have an opinion 83 percent oppose the citizenship questionThe key concern among ANA members is that the addition of a citizenship question would depress response among both noncitizens and their families even if family members are indeed citizensamp160 Inaccurate census data would lead to misallocated marketing resourcesVerbatim comments from survey respondents includequotMarketing decisionsinvestments are often made based on population countsamp160 If the question leads to noncitizens not answering millions of people primarily minorities might not be countedamp160 Inaccurate population counts would lead to misallocated resourcesquotquotIt would affect the data we rely on to quantify the marketplace and thereby undersize the business opportunityquotquotMarketing is based on consumers in markets not citizens in marketsamp160 As a business user of the data we need the census data to accurately reflect all segments of our societyamp160 Noncitizen residents contribute a great deal to many economiesamp160 Marketers need to understand who truly lives and works in the USquotThe ANA opposes the addition of the citizenship question to the 2020 Census and will be voicing our perspective to the Commerce Department and Secretary Wilbur Rossamp160 We encourage ANA members to do the sameAs a key next step the Office of Management and Budget part of the White House will release the Census 2020 questions for public review and comment via a Federal Register notice likely sometime this monthamp160 There will be a 60day comment periodamp160 During that period the ANA will express our views and again encourage ANA members to do soCensus counts need to be as accurate as possible to help ANA members optimize their marketing investmentsClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160

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ANA Members Oppose Addition of Citizenship Question for 2020 Census

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Bill Duggan

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ANA Members Oppose Addition of Citizenship Question for 2020 Census

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