NEW YORK - The United States Census Bureau has sought to allay concerns among Kurdish-Americans that they will be listed as ‘Arabs’ – rather than a distinct ethnic group – in the next nationwide population tally in 2020.
“We have no plans to classify Kurds as Arab,” the bureau’s spokesman Michael Cook told Rudaw.
The Kurdish American Society wrote to the US Census Bureau last month to express fears about plans to create a new category for Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) groups in the next census; and to ensure that Kurdish-Americans are not classed as Arabs on official forms.
According to Cook, the concerns are unfounded.
“The Census Bureau plans to consult with community experts and stakeholders in the spring of 2015 to obtain their feedback on our plans for classifying ethnicities and nationalities as Middle Eastern and North African,” he said.
“The Census Bureau’s proposed MENA classification is geographically based, and currently includes both Arabic speaking -- such as Egyptian and Jordanian, and non-Arabic speaking, such as Iranian and Kurdish -- nationalities and ethnic groups.”
Yuksel Serindag, a member of the Kurdish American Society, which organizes traditional Kurdish events in the New York City area and advocates for Kurdish issues in the US, said he was satisfied with the government’s response.
“We are happy to hear that the US Census Bureau has listened to our concerns, taken them into consideration and have confirmed that Kurdish-Americans and other MENA groups of non-Arab ethnic origins will be treated separately,” he said.
“We look forward to working with census officials over the coming months as they consult with various MENA ethnic communities in the US, so that we can ensure that Kurdish-Americans receive the recognition as a distinct ethnic group that they deserve.”
The US currently classifies MENA groups as “white” on census forms. Campaigners have lobbied the government to introduce a new category for decades, but efforts have gathered pace amid racial tensions following the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.
Census officials are now mulling whether to allow those of MENA descent to identify as such in the next census, giving them greater political clout and access to public funding. It will make a decision based on feedback from affected communities.
The US Congress would still have to sign off on the proposal before the change could be added to the 2020 Census. Some Republican lawmakers have previously criticized the cost and intrusion of the census and have sought to eliminate the community surveys.
Tensions between Iraq’s Kurds and Arabs have been raised in recent months because of rows between Erbil and Baghdad and by the Islamic State (ISIS), a Sunni Muslim militia that is fighting the Peshmerga and others in a multi-front war across Iraq and Syria.
Those tensions have also affected communities overseas, such as in the United States.
The Kurds are a distinct ethnic group – estimated at 25 to 35 million – with their own language and culture and straddling a mountainous region on the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. There are also large diaspora Kurdish communities in Europe and the United States.
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