2030 census to include new category for Middle Eastern and North African people. Read More →
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The addition of this category to the OMB’s standards for race and ethnicity for the first time in U.S. history means that an estimated 8 million Americans who trace their origins to the Middle East and North Africa will no longer have to choose “white” or “other” on federal forms, including the U.S. census. Read More →
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On the 2030 U.S. Census, Arab Americans will have their own box to check for the first time ever. And starting on Friday, agencies across the federal government are being instructed to add a “Middle Eastern or North African” option to race and ethnicity questions on all data collection forms. Read More →
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New checkboxes for "Middle Eastern or North African" and "Hispanic or Latino" are coming to the U.S. census and federal forms. Advocates say these changes will help enforce civil rights protections. Read More →
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A new rule announced Thursday is intended to yield a more accurate census of people with Hispanic, Middle Eastern and North African heritage. Why it matters: Critics have long said the government's approach to asking about people's race or ethnicity is confusing or misrepresentative — and the stakes are huge when it comes to the distribution of billions in federal funds. Read More →
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On the next U.S. census and future federal government forms, the list of checkboxes for a person's race and ethnicity is officially getting longer. Read More →
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Advocates have long said census count has left communities invisible, but say change is only a ‘first step’. Read More →
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The Office of Management and Budget on Thursday announced changes to how the federal government asks about people’s race and ethnicity, including in the US census. Under the new standards, scheduled to publish Friday, the government will collect race and ethnicity information using a single question and will include a new Middle Eastern and North African category as a choice, the Office of Management and Budget said. Read More →
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The federal government updated how it classifies people by race and ethnicity for the first time in over a quarter-century, aiming to better capture an increasingly diverse country and give policymakers a fuller view of the Americans their work impacts. Read More →
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For the first time in 27 years, the U.S. government is changing how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity, an effort that federal officials believe will more accurately count residents who identify as Hispanic and of Middle Eastern and North African heritage. Read More →
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The U.S. Census Bureau recently published the Detailed Demographic and Housing Characteristics File A (Detailed DHC-A), which included information about people from the Middle East or North Africa (MENA) for the very first time. Read More →
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Robert Santos, the first person of color to permanently helm the bureau, said he is supportive of changes to the 2030 census that would paint a more multicultural picture of America’s population. Read More →
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“I can’t stress enough how much it will change everything,” said Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, which has been advocating for Middle Eastern and North African people to have their own ethnic category on the census for more than four decades. Read More →
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"The thing about data is it sets policies. It's impossible to think of any aspect of life that isn't touched by the way we use census data," said Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute. "It decides where trillions of dollars of federal spending goes. It affects the protection of our communities, our political representation — everything." Read More →
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This new development is a long time in the making. The Arab American Institute first partnered with the census in 1990 with community surveys, and in 2015 they tested the MENA category, combining race and ethnicity. Read More →
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A Middle Eastern and North African category could be added to U.S. federal surveys and censuses, and changes could be made to how Hispanics are able to self-identify, under preliminary recommendations released Thursday by the Biden administration in what would be the first update to race and ethnicity standards in a quarter century. Read More →
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The reforms would also mark a major achievement for advocates for Arab Americans and other MENA groups who have long campaigned for their own checkbox. Read More →
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In preliminary recommendations released on Thursday, a working group of representatives of various government agencies called for adding “a response category for Middle Eastern and North African, separate and distinct from the ‘White’ category” on the Census. Read More →
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The recommendations were made by a working group of civil servants at the request of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Among the proposals is a reformatted question of individuals’ ethnicity or race that would feature options for “Middle Eastern or North African” (MENA) and “Hispanic or Latino.” Read More →
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There's been a decades-long push for the U.S. Census Bureau to collect more detailed data on people with roots in the Middle East or North Africa, also known as MENA. Advocates of that campaign hit another roadblock Friday, when the Census Bureau announced it is not planning to add a MENA category to the 2020 census. Read More →
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