USA Green Card Immigration Blog

For the first time ever, the 2010 census will take the indigenous immigrants into account. Indigenous immigrants — the Native Americans of Mexico and Central America, usually have a hard time describing themselves on the U.S census forms. This is because their ancestry can cover multiple census categories, and they must also overcome a significant language barrier and a mistrust of government. The indigenous immigrants are discriminated in their home country for their origin and in USA for their immigration status. The 2010 census will tally all the indigenous immigrants, and will give a clear picture of the growing segment of the indigenous immigrant population.

Michele Lowe, spokesperson of the census bureau has said that in the 2010 Census, the bureau will tabulate handwritten entries specifying whether the respondent belongs to a Central American indigenous group such as Maya, Nahua, Mixtec, or Purepecha. The list of different populations that end up being counted will be made public when results are released in 2011. This will give a complete portrait of the American people. The 2010 census will show us that there are a lot of indigenous immigrants in America.

An accurate count of the indigenous immigrants in the 2010 census is very essential to themselves and to the federal government for allocating funds to the state and local governments. The indigenous immigrant population speaks many different languages making it hard to campaign for the 2010 survey. But several, Indigenous organizations are working independently within their communities to dispel the hesitation and encourage participation in the 2010 census survey through organizing workshops, public forums, flyers, and radio broadcasts. Jonathan Fox, a professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz states that “more indigenous migrants are willing to come out in public and claim their ethnic identity.”