NASW speaks out against citizenship question on 2020 Census

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is speaking out against the U.S. Department of Commerce’s decision to include a question about citizenship on the 2020 Census, stating that it would deter some from completing the census.

The NASW believes adding the question about citizenship to the census would cause a decline in census participation among immigrant families and individuals, whether they are legal citizens or have legal status but are not full citizens. If immigrant population participation in the census were to decline, it would skew the picture the census provides of the U.S. population. Conducting the census is mandated under the constitution as is the requirement for the federal government to count the total population in the U.S., both of which could be negatively impacted if census participation were to decline.

Census data helps communities allocate resources for education, assistance for veterans, hospitals, and transportation. This data also lets the federal government make decisions about allocating funds to states.

There is bipartisan opposition to the addition of the citizen question and NASW joins more than 200 organizations in an effort to prevent the question from being include on the census.