Brain Contour

Should international students fill out the US Census 2010?

My housemate and I just received the form for the 2010 US Census. Our first reaction was to throw it directly to the recycle bin, just like what we do to every spam mail we got from Capital One. We both thought the 2010 US Census form is only for Americans, you know for citizens. Census we thought is a count of the citizens, a periodic count of the country’s population (in this case the United States), all for purposes of taxation. So why will the U.S. mind both of us, international students, who may not be staying in the country for good?

The 2010 US Census stayed in the brown box bin for two days until my sister, who will soon become a U.S. citizen, called and asked me about the survey. That was when I thought that maybe my housemate and I were wrong.