January 15, 2010, Washington, DC- San Francisco City Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi speaks about the importance of the 2010 Census and urges Iranian Americans to participate and be counted. “Many categories of populations are counted, but there are many more categories that do not exist… For example, the Iranian American community. We are telling people to put in the ‘Other’ column: ‘We are Iranian, and we want to be counted…we are not just simply put into the general category of Caucasian”. Mirkarimi has recently introduced legislation mandating that census workers be admitted into notoriously hard-to-access Single Room Occupancy hotels so residents can more easily be counted in the 2010 census.

The census is a count of everyone residing in the United States: in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. The census occurs every ten years – the next census is in 2010 and is mandated under the U.S. Constitution. Like many ethnic groups, Iranian Americans have traditionally been undercounted leading to a diminished sense of representation within American society.

To this end, PAAIA helped launch the Iranian American 2010 Census Project Coalition, which to date consists of 16 national and regional Iranian American organizations. The specific goals of this Project are to reach every Iranian American household in the country to educate them about the importance of participating in the 2010 Census, to assure them that the information provided to the Census Bureau will be confidential, and to urge them to respond to questions relating to race, ethnicity or national origin in a consistent manner.

Click here to view the Iranian American 2010 Census Coalition informational and instructional pamphlet in English.

Click here to view the Iranian American 2010 Census Coalition informational and instructional pamphlet in Farsi.