Brazilians and the 1990 United States Census: Immigrants, Ethnicity, and the Undercount

Abstract

Two issues involved in the conduct of the 1990 United States census and its problematic final tally are the ethnic categories that were utilized and the enumeration of undocumented immigrants. The experience of Brazilian immigrants in New York City highlights these issues. The census categories hampered the ability of Brazilians to declare their ethnicity, a failing that almost certainly led to an undercount of this segment of the immigrant population. A significant but unknown percentage of Brazilian immigrants are undocumented. Factors that make it difficult to enumerate undocumented populations, including disinterest in the entire census enterprise and fear of detection by immigration authorities, also were responsible for the non-participation of many Brazilians in the 1990 census and for their subsequent undercount.