March 27, 2020

Make sure you’re counted as a Ukrainian!

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The National Office of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America released the following statement on the 2020 U.S. Census on March 23. We publish it here as a guest editorial. (For a graphic related to the Census, please see the full-page advertisement on the last page of this issue in pdf file.)

Census Day, April 1, is almost upon us, and while the 2020 United States Census might not be the first online American census, it will be America’s first digital census. This year, American households will receive in the mail a 12-digit census ID number, instructing us to go to www.my2020census.gov. (You can still also respond to your census letter by mail or phone.) As we are all legally obligated to participate in the census, we should all do this by April 1, or at the latest by the end of the tabulation period at the end of July.

The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), the largest representative body of Americans of Ukrainian descent, values the importance of registering our Ukrainian background and descent in the U.S. Census. On the basis of our church statistics, fraternal and other organizational memberships, the UCCA estimates that the number of Americans of Ukrainian descent is as high as 2 million people. Yet in official records, these statistics are not to be found, due to decades of mislabeling Ukrainian immigrants’ country of origin and further still the antiquated language of the census form.

The statistics gathered by the U.S. Census Bureau determine how federal funding impacts communities each year, including the amount of funding that state governments and local communities receive from the federal government for the next decade. The more Ukrainians self-identify as such on the 2020 U.S. Census, the more our community will benefit.

The UCCA asks all members of the Ukrainian American community to make sure to fill out the space listed under Question No. 9 (RACE or ORIGIN) by writing in the word UKRAINIAN in that space.

Since 1960, the U.S. Census Bureau has recognized Ukraine as a separate entity and country, and the Ukrainian language as a separate and independent language. The Ukrainian American community accomplished this change after years of advocacy efforts led by the UCCA and confirmed to the UCCA by letter from the U.S. Department of Commerce before the 1960 U.S. Census.

For the 2020 U.S. Census, the U.S. Census Bureau has prepared language guides in 59 languages, including a Ukrainian-language guide, and accessible versions in large print and American Sign Language, which are available online at https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/2020-census/planning-management/language-resources.html.

UPDATE: The 2020 U.S. Census had been scheduled to stop at the end of July, but the deadline has now been extended to mid-August because of the spreading novel coronavirus.

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