Once, Only Once, and in the Right Place Residence Rules in the Decennial Census (2006) / Chapter Skim
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4 Complex and Ambiguous Living Situations
4 Complex and Ambiguous Living Situations
Pages 113-164
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From page 113... ...
; · people who may be missed by existing census operations and questions, whether due to gaps in residence rules and questions or to structural features in the census questionnaire (4D) ; and · people whose true residential location -- and even their counting in the census -- may be affected by the nature of the housing stock in which they live (4E)
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From page 114... ...
censuses, the 1980 census included in its supplementary reports a separate tabulation of nonpermanent residents, tallying "elderly seasonal migrants, owners of second homes, itinerant farm workers and business people who reside part-time in out-of-town accommodations" (Gober and Mings, 1984:164)
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From page 115... ...
However, Arizona State University sponsored smaller-scale, targeted interviewing at mobile home and recreational vehicle parks, beginning in 1984 and continuing through 2000. Happel and Hogan (2002)
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From page 116... ...
: "for example, 61 percent of all New York State households initially enumerated in a place other than their usual residence were found in Florida, hardly a surprise." However, there are limits to which snowbird movement can be thought of as a cross-state phenomenon; Mann cites a Census Bureau report on nonpermanent households as reporting that "47 percent of California's nonpermanent households lived permanently elsewhere in California; 44 percent of New York State's nonpermanent households lived in New York and 33 percent of Texas' lived in Texas." Relatively little research has been done to date on either the origin or destination of sunbirds; see Hogan and Steinnes (1996) for a contrast between snowbirds "flying from" Minnesota and sunbirds originating in Arizona.
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From page 117... ...
This gets back to the general rule for persons with multiple residences. Accordingly, snowbirds are referenced in rule 2 of the 2000 census residence rules as being counted "where they spend most of the time during the week, month, or year, etc." and are cited as an example of a "yearly cycle" in the attachment to the rules.
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From page 118... ...
" In this section, we have focused on one component of seasonal migration, specifically the movement of older, retired people for stays of several months. It is worth nothing that other significant short-term population movements affect younger age groups and even shorter "seasons." One such case are groups of migrant farm workers, which we discuss in Section 4A.6; another seasonal population of interest in major hosting cities like Las Vegas, Chicago, and Atlanta is the steady stream of short-term attendees of professional meetings and conferences.
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From page 119... ...
This work suggests some of the conceptual difficulties involved in counting RV users: · Definition of the physical place where they are "most of the time": The place where truly diehard RV users live or stay most of the time may in fact be the RV, if they keep to a steady rotation of visiting friends and relatives for weeks at a time. The 32 RV-using snowbirds interviewed by Mings 2For the purposes of the study, "recreational vehicle is defined to include all types of motorhomes, conventional travel trailers, fifth-wheel travel trailers, folding camping trailers, and truck campers" (Curtin, 2001:5)
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From page 120... ...
These long-distance commuter workers may live one place (near work) during the work week but return to another the rest of the time, making it difficult to identify one usual residence.
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From page 121... ...
Choices in treating commuter workers can induce "potential bias of family composition data, creating a class of fictitious single parent families, possibly with incomes greatly underrepresented by excluding that of the absent spouse."3 CEC Associates (1987:22) concluded that the rule for commuter workers "probably needs to be retained" for the 1990 census, but that "research needs to be undertaken to determine the impact of this rule on family and household statistics, on occupancy statistics, and most importantly on apportionment and redistricting data." The 2000 census residence rules attempted to add some clarity to the handling of commuter workers, though how well that worked is unclear.
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From page 122... ...
They felt that although some family members worked and lived away from the family home, they would still be included on the form that his/her family filled out, despite what the rules stated. Though the Rolark memo implies a more flexible concept of commuter worker arrangements, the phrase "commuter workers" only occurs in the discussion of a "weekly cycle" in the 2000 census residence rules.
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From page 123... ...
noted this provision as well. The residence rules for the 1990 census indicated that "the Census Bureau plans to count Members of Congress either at their Washington, D.C.
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From page 124... ...
Previous census enumerator instructions and residence rules have also covered a group for whom the opposite situation may apply, in which a person's workplace and residence may coincide: live-in or long-term domestic workers and caregivers. In 2000, such workers were to be counted as part of the household provided that the person "works for and lives in this household and has no other home." The long shifts -- often multiple 24-hour periods -- that are part of the work experience of public safety personnel like firefighters or paramedics/emergency medical technicians can also blur the line between "work" and "home" locations.
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From page 125... ...
analysis found rates of missing young adult and adult males as high as 61 percent in their small-area study, and they concluded that "practically all the significant inaccurate information came from adult females who [neglected] to mention productive men residing in their domiciles" (quoted in Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology, 1990:43)
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From page 126... ...
Specifically, analysis of data from the 1993 Census Bureau-sponsored Living Situation Survey by Martin (1999) found inconsistencies between people listed on rosters as having any attachment to the household in a 2-month period and the people identified by respondents as "members" of the household.
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From page 127... ...
The special case of agricultural worker camps, occupied by migrant farm laborers during harvest periods, was explicitly referenced in the 1980 and 1990 census residence rules (see Box 54) and later in rule 14 of the 2000 census residence rules.
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From page 128... ...
have short, well-defined harvest seasons that -- like strawberries-require a significant short-term labor force. Ethnographic researchers have also observed that migrant farm workers from Mexico have a broader geographic effect than some might expect, as they "are no longer limiting themselves to farm areas in the U.S.
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From page 129... ...
COMPLEX AND AMBIGUOUS LIVING SITUATIONS 129 of 43 7 35 6 9 el - 75-mia from ercentP ni as Apart grants work ng dren,l season. vi Mil aborl the Li Chi Al on of 30 5 38 13 14 -- farmr ng grants thei ercentP Mil oflal dependi, Al or l Al 13 2 16 6 6 58 dotub e.l abl farm schedu of orkers on, W do on to 20012002 ercentP armF catiol grati ates St mia of 29 10 23 18 20 -- "home"r ted ni grants ng.
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From page 130... ...
The limited glimpse at migrant farm workers' living conditions provided by the NAWS highlights some of the conceptual difficulties involved in contacting them in the census and gathering accurate residence data. The illegal and undocumented status of a large share of the population raises the possibility of undercounting the workers: contacted employers may be apprehensive about providing full reports if they hire undocumented workers, or householders may not readily "volunteer information about the presence of undocumented kin or friends in the home" (Palerm, 1994:26, 28)
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From page 131... ...
Some of the living arrangements described in this chapter constitute what Census Bureau researchers have termed "complex households" -- "those where the web of relationships within the household is other than one nuclear family (i.e., nuclear family being married couple with or without its own biological children) ." Examples of these complex households include the presence of nonrelatives in the household, such as unmarried partners and gay partners; more distant relatives such as grandparents, cousins, and aunts and uncles; children who are shared across households; and "people who may be mobile or ambiguous in terms of household membership" (Schwede, 2003:vii)
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From page 132... ...
132 ONCE, ONLY ONCE, AND IN THE RIGHT PLACE Table 4-2 Children Under Age 18 by Household Composition, 1996 and 2001 (in thousands) Children Living With 2001 1996 Two Parents 51,113 50,685 Married parents 48,987 49,186 Unmarried parents 2,126 1,499 Biological mother and father 45,103 44,708 Married parents 43,287 43,401 Biological mother and stepfather 4,050 3,723 Biological father and stepmother 815 1,004 Biological mother and adoptive father 445 479 Biological father and adoptive mother 56 37 Adoptive mother and father 605 702 Adoptive mother and stepfather 16 23 Adoptive father and stepmother 19 9 Stepmother and stepfather 4 - One Parent 18,472 18,165 Mother only 16,297 16,340 Biological 15,980 16,051 Father only 2,175 1,825 Biological 2,082 1,737 Neither Parent 2,917 2,644 Grandparents only 1,407 1,266 Other relatives only 889 688 Nonrelatives only 520 622 Other arrangement 101 69 At Least One Biological Parent 68,531 67,739 At Least One Stepparent 5,081 4,902 At Least One Adoptive Parent 1,372 1,484 At Least One Foster Parent 260 313 Total 72,501 71,494 NOTES: -- ; rounds to zero.
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From page 133... ...
However, he concluded, "I doubt that a divorced parent who completes a regular household census form would be likely to [consider] his or her offspring as a `visitor.'" No residence rule in the 1990 census specifically mentioned children in joint custody, but the 2000 census residence rules added joint custody as an example case in rule 2, which covered cases where residence follows a weekly, monthly, yearly, or other cycle.
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From page 134... ...
The institution of joint custody arrangements in divorce proceedings is a relatively recent phenomenon. By the 1920s, a strong preference among divorce courts to award custody to mothers "became as firmly fixed as the earlier paternal preference" that had dominated for decades.
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From page 135... ...
In considering children in joint custody, it is important to bear in mind that even families with legal custody arrangements do not always follow them: the legal decision about which parent(s) a child will live with does not always correspond to where the child actually lives.
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From page 136... ...
Among those cases where custody is awarded, roughly 80 percent are a grant of sole physical custody to one parent, 15 percent are joint custody, and the remainder either split custody or placement of children with another person entirely. Short of detailed information on the number of children involved in shared custody agreements, the vital statistics data do shed light on trends in divorce in the United States.
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From page 137... ...
. Although national-level compilation of court and government records on custody arrangements is lacking, researchers have studied custody issues using detailed extracts of court records.
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From page 138... ...
. A second national source of information on custody arrangements is the CPS conducted by the Census Bureau.
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From page 139... ...
who lives with one biological parent and whose other parent is absent. "Other" includes split custody arrangements.
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From page 140... ...
. A critical question involved with the responses of cohabiting couples is how children in this situation are counted.
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From page 141... ...
4B.3 Recent Immigrants The discussion in Section 4A.6 focused on migrant farm workers, many of whom are undocumented persons who cross the U.S. border in search of employment; they were considered as a special case where employment is a cause of residential mobility.
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From page 142... ...
. An evaluation conducted by the Census Bureau based on the 2000 census estimated that 4.1 percent of households are linguistically isolated, an increase from 3.2 percent in 1990.
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From page 143... ...
Only one address is associated with the lot, regardless of how many trailers may be there. They also observed small housing units nested within others, as well as housing unit "shelters" behind bushes or other physical obstacles.
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From page 144... ...
Cooperation with tribal governments is necessary to generate accurate address listings and coordinate outreach activities and follow-up enumeration. The accurate collection of information on native American ancestry is itself a complex topic -- how well does the Census Bureau's self-identification system square with legal status as American Indian (listing on tribal rolls)
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From page 145... ...
As a result, American Indians were a major focus of the extensive outreach and advertising campaign of the 2000 census, including custom-themed posters and targeted activities carried out in partnership with tribal governments. · Language differences: Lack of fluency in English can hinder a declining but still-existent small group of people whose primary language is a na tive tongue from participating in the census.
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From page 146... ...
In the absence of employment opportunities on the reservation, many resi dents seek jobs elsewhere. Since their efforts may still be contributing to the economic well-being of the family at the reservation, "enduring ties" may drive both the worker and family members to consider the family home as the "usual residence" even if the worker is away most of the time.
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From page 147... ...
.17 Very few survey measures have attempted to give a nationwide examination of homelessness. The most recent national-level study was conducted in 1996, when the Census Bureau was the contracted data collector for the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients (NSHAPC)
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From page 148... ...
. However, the Census Bureau avoided casting S-Night tallies as a comprehensive count of the homelessness; moreover, Cordray and Pion (1991:595)
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From page 149... ...
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the lower court's ruling, albeit for different reasons; the appeals court concluded that the plaintiffs had not demonstrated direct harm as a result of the Census Bureau's procedures for counting the homeless, and hence rejected the case because the plaintiffs lacked standing (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty v. Kantor, 945312)
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From page 150... ...
; the long form was administered to every sixth person. · Phase 2: Enumerators canvassed soup kitchens and mobile food van stops during daytime hours on March 28, 2000; soup kitchens were visited during the meal serving the largest number of clients; interviews were conducted using a modified census questionnaire, including a request for usual home elsewhere (UHE)
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From page 151... ...
Rule 17 of the 2000 census residence rules -- consistent with 1990 practice -- directed that people "at a soup kitchen or outreach program (e.g., mobile food van) " be permitted to indicate a usual home elsewhere.
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From page 152... ...
Neither the 2000 census nor its past few predecessors defined formal residence rules for the handling of movers; technical documentation for data files for the 2000 census note only that "people who moved around Census Day were counted at the place they considered to be their usual residence" (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001:C-2)
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From page 153... ...
No formal residence rule was defined for births or deaths on Census Day, nor were they explicitly included in the questionnaire or enumerator instructions for the most recent censuses. Early census enumerator instructions treated the question matter-of-factly; the first set of instructions, accompanying the 1820 census, directed that (Gauthier, 2002:6)
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From page 154... ...
The three phenomena described thus far in this section -- moves, births, and deaths around Census Day -- can create complications for enumeration and household rostering based on the timing of the interviews. In particular, the more time passes between the administration of the census questionnaire and follow-up operations (e.g., enumerator contact in the case of large households with more than seven members or the postenumeration survey used for coverage evaluation)
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From page 155... ...
We have already discussed several of these situations -- children living at boarding schools or colleges for part of the year, and children in foster care settings -- in Chapter 3, and issues surrounding children in joint custody arrangements and 21The 1860, 1880, and 1890 enumerator instructions directed that fractions only be used for children under 1 year of age and that children under 1 month be reported as 0/12. The 1900 and 1910 instructions directed that fractions be used for "child[ren]
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From page 156... ...
Census coverage errors among children may arise from respondent misunderstanding of (or resistance to) stated census residence rules, but there is reason to suspect that a more basic, structural feature of the census questionnaire itself plays some part.
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From page 157... ...
As America's urban centers grew in size, and a larger share of the populace lived in cities rather than in rural areas, census officials became aware of an increasing variety of places and shelters where people and families settled. The Census Bureau's official definition of what constitutes a "housing unit" has shifted with time, as shown in Table 4-6, as has guidance on hardto-determine housing locations.
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From page 158... ...
of every large city of the United States, requesting the cooperation of the police, so far as it may be necessary to prevent the omission of the classes of persons herein indicated." The 1890 enumerator instructions used similar language, though no letters to mayors or police were offered; however, new residence patterns -- "tenement houses and the so-called `flats' of the great cities" -- were added to the roster of special cases.26 26Interpreting eating as a key sign of usual residence, the 1890 instructions directed that "as many families are to be recorded" in these places "as there are separate tables."
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From page 159... ...
The 1930 enumerator instructions acknowledged the basic problem of hotel housing stock: "the distinction between an apartment house and an apartment hotel, and in turn between an apartment hotel and a hotel devoted mainly to transients, will often be difficult to establish." Having laid out the basic challenge, though, the instructions prescribed a rather confusing rule: All of the persons returned from a hotel should likewise be counted as a single "family," except that where a family of two or more members (as a husband and wife, or a mother and daughter) occupies permanent quar ters in a hotel (or an apartment hotel)
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From page 160... ...
.27 The 2000 census included no attempt to count persons living in hotels or motels, and no mention of hotels is made in the 31 residence rules for the 2000 census. Several challenges are posed by hotels and motels for definition of residence: · Proliferation of extended-stay hotels: Over the past two decades, extended-stay suite hotels have become a larger share of the hotel market.
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From page 161... ...
The 2000 census residence rules included no specific provision for counting people displaced by disasters. Under a general heading of "people away 28A recent high-profile example is the landmark Plaza Hotel on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
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From page 162... ...
. How exactly this count was to be implemented was not made clear: · The closest analogue to the short-term facilities where disaster evacuees might be housed is the "emergency shelter" of rule 24 of the 2000 census residence rules -- one for which reporting of a usual home elsewhere is disallowed.
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From page 163... ...
Barring that, can an up-to-date inventory of the destroyed (and rebuilding) housing stock be maintained, and the population in temporary shelters be accurately logged and followed up as they move to more permanent homes?
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