U.S. Census Plans to Recount Migrants in North County : Homeless: Initial results indicate that the counters missed a lot because they didn’t speak Spanish and couldn’t find camps and sites where Latino laborers live or gather.
U.S. census officials, acknowledging shortcomings with the count of migrant workers in Northern San Diego County, unveiled plans Thursday to conduct a recount of the area’s huge population of homeless Latino laborers.
The region may be the only one nationwide to have a recount of any portion of the much-publicized special homeless canvassing conducted throughout the United States Tuesday and Wednesday, according to census officials.
Some additional counting was carried out late Wednesday because of earlier delays, but no other recounts are known to be slated nationwide, said Paulette Lichtman-Panzer, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Census Bureau’s central office in Maryland. Recounts may occur later, she said, if local government officials object to certain findings and show evidence of undercounting.
In San Diego, though, census authorities decided to conduct a recount almost immediately after reviewing what was clearly incomplete data from Northern San Diego County.
“We feel there were some areas where our procedures weren’t completely followed, so we have to go back and do some rework,” said Michael J. Weiler, assistant regional manager with the Census Bureau, who oversaw the San Diego count.
The recount will probably be conducted within a week or so, after procedures have been reviewed, some new training undertaken and a corps of census takers--particularly Spanish-speakers--has been employed, officials said. Only the selected areas where migrants reside and gather will be recounted, Weiler said, as counting of other homeless populations went smoothly. This week’s special count involved only the homeless.
There have been widespread indications that census takers--only a minority of whom displayed a command of Spanish, the dominant language among the migrants--undercounted the migrants of San Diego County and took only head counts when more extensive demographic questioning was called for. There were some reports that counts were made from cars.
“There’s no doubt that they missed a lot,” said Connie Saldana, coordinator of Hispanic Services for the North County Interfaith Council, an Escondido-based social service agency that works with migrants.
The principal shortcoming, census officials say, was not an undercount but a failure by census-takers, known as “enumerators,” to interview subjects and gather details such as name, age, race, and marital status. Head counts, in which each subject’s age is estimated and race is guessed, are only permissible in three broad instances: when people are sleeping, when they are eluding counters, or if the personal safety of the counters is threatened. But head counts appeared to be the prevalent means used among the migrants this week.
“We looked at our data, and we discovered that we were not getting the comprehensive collection of data from migrants that we expected,” said Dan Conway, a census spokesman in San Diego.
Census officials tended to place the blame for the problems of the migrant count with individual counters and their supervisors. They say they have no immediate plans to revise their counting procedures or augment their maps showing supposed locations of camps and migrant gathering places. During the counting, many census takers seemed confused about the location of camps and roadside venues where migrants gather seeking employment from passing motorists.
Overall, 228 counters were posted in Northern San Diego County, although the exact number assigned to count migrants has not been made public.
“Our procedures were fine,” Conway said. “The problem was the execution.”
However, critics have questioned the bureau’s entire approach, contending that many procedures--such as counting the migrant population in a few hours and not hiring local guides who know the camp locations and populations--hinder a successful and accurate count. That is particularly true, activists say, with a mobile, hard-to-find population such as the migrants. Many of them are undocumented or were once without papers, and they have long been fearful of U.S. and local authorities.
Estimates of the number of homeless migrants in Northern San Diego County range from 5,000 to 35,000. Unable to afford area rents, they live in crude dwellings fashioned from scrap materials and in bunkers dug into the ground. Most are Mexican men, but many Central Americans live within the thriving camp subcultures, as do a considerable number of women and children.
The counting this week was the Census Bureau’s first effort to come up with an accurate count of the nation’s homeless population.
