Once, Only Once, and in the Right Place Residence Rules in the Decennial Census (2006) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix C Americans Residing Overseas
Appendix C Americans Residing Overseas
Pages 327-338
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From page 327... ...
Likewise, the current practice of excluding American citizens living overseas, who are not military personnel or employees of the federal government, is one on which we do not offer advice. However, while we do not comment on the appropriateness of counting Americans living outside the country in the census, some comment on the way this group has been handled in previous censuses and in census tests is in order.
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From page 328... ...
naval crews in the counts (Mills, 1993:3) ; otherwise, consideration of the overseas population is absent from both census tabulations and enumerator instructions until the beginning of the 20th century.3 The 1900 census counted 91,219 Americans living abroad, consisting of military and federal civilian personnel at military stations and their dependents, along with the crews of naval vessels.
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From page 329... ...
A Bureau summary of innovations for 1950 suggested that, prior to 1950, "no systematic effort [was] made to enumerate American citizens abroad"; "since their numbers were small, this omission made little practical difference." The situation changed after World War II, though: "now that we have hundreds of thousands of our people overseas in occupation and other military duty and on the staffs of federal civilian agencies, it has become important to have an inventory of them" (Shryock, 1950:8)
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From page 330... ...
Specifically, military personnel and federal civilian employees stationed overseas were included in the state-level census totals for purposes of apportionment. Two major reasons were cited for this change: the larger number of persons expected to be overseas at the time of the census because of the Vietnam War, and the then-recent court decisions on "one person, one vote." Subcommittees in both houses of Congress held hearings on the issue in 1969, and they favored the inclusion of the military and federal civilian personnel in apportionment counts; advice was again sought from the U.S.
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From page 331... ...
However, the Bureau reversed itself on including military and federal civilian employees in apportionment totals, returning to the 1970 policy of including them in their home states' counts. The change owed a great deal to increased congressional interest in the issue, which grew as both the overseas Americans issue and the inclusion of undocumented immigrants emerged as major issues and potential sources of litigation (McMillen, 2000a)
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From page 332... ...
Constance Morella (R-MD) , subsequently sponsored legislation to include military person nel and federal civilian employees stationed overseas during the census in the state population totals used for apportionment (H.R.
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From page 333... ...
Instead, it agreed to provide state by-state counts of military personnel stationed abroad using informa tion from administrative records. According to the Census Bureau, DoD identified three possible criteria, obtainable from administrative files, for assigning overseas military personnel to a home state: home of record; legal residence (state declared for income tax purposes)
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From page 334... ...
The House Subcommittee on the Census held a 1999 hearing to review various legislative proposals to include nongovernmental overseas Americans in the count that had been introduced in both chambers of Congress.4 At the hearing, which also considered proposals to change the Bureau's policy on counting prisoners at the prison location (see Chapter 3) , Census Bureau director Kenneth Prewitt argued that it was far too late to consider enumerating private American citizens in the 2000 census and reiterated basic concerns about conducting the count (see below)
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From page 335... ...
Utah brought suit, charging that the Census Bureau's treatment of Americans living abroad was unfair in that military personnel and other federal employees stationed overseas are included in the apportionment counts but other civilians are not. Specifically, Utah challenged the exclusion of approximately 11,000 missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: these missionaries may live abroad temporarily, and many of them would ordinarily be counted in Utah.
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From page 336... ...
were returned from all three sites. By comparison, the July 1999 State Department estimates suggested that 1,036,300 American citizens reside in Mexico, 101,750 in France, and 7,710 in Kuwait.
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From page 337... ...
Administrative records such as passport and visa files, voter reg istration forms, as well as records held by private companies and orga nizations have the potential to help the Bureau enumerate Americans abroad. However, the accuracy of these records, the Bureau's ability to access them, confidentiality issues, and the possibility of duplication all remain open questions.
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From page 338... ...
Mills (1993:1) soundly notes a "major observation" that arises from reviewing the history of overseas Americans in the census -- namely, "the lack of a single conceptual thread running through the censuses concerning how Americans abroad fit into the overall decennial enumeration.
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