Census Focuses on Russian Immigrants in Effort to Achieve Full Count

Census Workers in Brighton Beach, NY (Photo: Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska)

Census workers have started knocking on doors, in an effort to visit the 48 million households across the country that haven’t mailed back their forms. One neighborhood they’ll focus on is Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, New York. The neighborhood is nicknamed “Little Odessa” for its large Russian community.  As FI2W’s Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska reports, language barriers and a mistrust of government – nurtured during the Soviet era – are keeping many immigrants there from participating in the census.

This radio story aired on PRI’s The World Monday May 3rd, 2010.

Related Article: Groups in NY Join Forces to Count Russian Immigrants in the 2010 Census

The Feet in Two Worlds project on the Census is made possible thanks to the generous support of the 2010 Census Outreach Initiative Fund at The New York Community Trust and the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.

AboutEwa Kern-Jedrychowska

Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska was born and raised in Warsaw, Poland, and has lived in Queens, NY, since 2001. A former Feet in 2 Worlds reporter, Ewa now works as a staff reporter for DNA.info covering Queens. She was formerly a reporter for Nowy Dzienik/The Polish Daily News, where she covered stories about Polish immigrants in the U.S.