EVERETT — Some people here don’t think they count. Nadiya Kibitskaya is helping get the word out that they do.
Kibitskaya, of Everett, is one of more than 1,000 workers the U.S. Census Bureau is hiring to work from Snohomish County to the Canadian border. Her job is to talk with people applying for work as census takers. She also helps recruit other Russian-speaking workers and helps explain why the census is needed.
“Sometimes Russian people are afraid to give information because they don’t know what’s going on,” Kibitskaya said.
The U.S. Constitution mandates a national census every 10 years. The population count is used in part to determine the number of seats each state will have in the U.S. House of Representatives. Information from the census helps determine where to build stores and housing developments, and how many schools and hospitals are needed.
With the 2010 census forms due to arrive in Snohomish County households in a few weeks, officials plan to reach deep into communities to get everybody counted.
The U.S. Census Bureau is rolling out advertisements in more than a dozen languages and hiring people from different ethnic communities to better reach immigrants, according the bureau’s Web site. The questionnaire itself is available in English, Spanish, simplified Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Russian.
To get a form in one of the five languages other than English, people will have to call a number on the back of the form and request the questionnaire. Special assistance centers also will be set up throughout communities where people can pick up forms in another language and get help.
The last census showed that more than 12 percent of Snohomish County residents over age 5 didn’t speak English at home, and 2.4 percent of those people spoke little or no English. That was in 2000. Since then, the county’s population has become more ethnically diverse.
When the time comes to go door to door in late spring, officials want census workers who can count in their own neighborhoods. People are more likely to share information with a neighbor, said Deni Luna, a media specialist with the Seattle Regional Census Center.
Outreach efforts have been under way for months. Census officials even worked with a fortune-cookie factory in Seattle to put fun census messages, in English, in fortune cookies, Luna said.
Despite the bureau’s best efforts, a certain percentage of people likely will remain uncounted, she said. Past counts show that those most at risk of being missed by the census are between 18 and 24, likely don’t speak English or may be of American Indian descent.
Census officials are taking extra steps to reach those who don’t speak English.
They are working in partnership with community organizations and ethnic media outlets, said Hilary Bingman, a partnership specialist with the bureau.
For example, the free statewide Russian-language publication The Russian World published a calendar to advertise the census and plans to distribute it to its partners in the community, Bingman said.
“This is a kind of community that, if you are on the outside, is very hard to break into,” Bingman said of the Russian and Ukrainian community.
Census workers turn to Kibitskaya when they hit a wall with Russian speakers, like when she was asked to assure the protective owner of a small nursing home that residents’ personal information will be put to good use.
Many immigrants are wary about sharing information with government officials for various reasons, Luna said. They may have been persecuted in their home country and may be afraid to deal with government. Some also face legal troubles in the U.S.
The Census Bureau legally can’t share personal information about the people it counts with police, immigration authorities or anyone else, Luna said. People who may be in trouble with the law or residing in the country illegally should be counted along with everyone else, she said.
This year’s form will have 10 questions and will take about 10 minutes to complete, according to the Census Bureau. Questions include whether the home is rented or owned, and the name, age, sex and race of every person in a household. The bureau also works with schools to educate kids about the census, Luna said. That’s important, because in many families where English isn’t the first language, kids often go through family mail to separate bills from garbage.
“They may throw away the paper because they think it’s advertising,” Kibitskaya said.
Through the special program, kids learn to recognize the form when it arrives in the mail and to explain to their parents why it’s needed.
Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.
Census information
To learn more, go to www.census.gov.
To apply to work as a census taker, call 1-866-861-2010.
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