The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

In this report:

The Changing Racial and Ethnic Landscape

Evaluations of coverage in the census, dating back to 1940, have consistently shown a disproportionate undercount of people of color. This so-called "differential undercount" – the gap between the accuracy of the count for Non-Hispanic Whites and the accuracy of the count for all other race and ethnic groups – led the Census Bureau to develop targeted methods and messages aimed at promoting greater census participation among African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, American Indians, and other hard-to-reach ethnic population groups.  The Gulf Coast already was home to significant numbers of these hard-to-count groups when Hurricane Katrina came ashore, changing not only the literal landscape but the racial and ethnic composition of the hardest hit communities. 

For example, the Black population in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, fell from 67 percent in 2000 to 61 percent in 2007, while it increased from 23 percent to 27 percent in Jefferson Parish to the north, clearly suggesting that some Black residents fleeing the storm's destruction settled, however temporarily, as close to home as possible.  Conversely, the White population in Orleans Parish increased from 28 percent in 2000 to 34 percent in 2007, and dropped from 65 percent in 2000 to 59 percent in 2007 in Jefferson Parish.

The forthcoming University of Mississippi-led "impact analysis" of the hardest-hit ZIP codes bears out this hurricane-induced shift in racial composition.  Along the Louisiana coast, the post-storm Black population in 2007 dropped more from its expected levels, both absolutely and relatively, than the White population. The Black population was about one-third below non-storm estimates, about a 65 percent greater decline than the approximately 20 percent drop for the White population.  These findings demonstrate the disproportionate impact of the storms and governmental failings on African Americans living in Louisiana, which will have lingering social and political consequences for the state.

In contrast to the Louisiana ZIP codes studied by the University of Mississippi researchers, the White population in coastal Mississippi ZIP codes was reduced relatively and absolutely more than the Black population (roughly 10.3 percent v. 6.3 percent, or 70 percent more).  Comparisons between 2000 census and 2007 ACS data bear out this conclusion; in both Gulfport and Biloxi, and in Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson Counties, the White proportion of the population declined and the Black proportion increased over this period.

As evidence that many displaced Black residents are still intent on returning home, Orleans Parish had the largest increase in Black population (16,000) of all U.S. counties between July 1, 2007 and July 1, 2008.  New Orleans metro area school enrollment statistics from the 2008-09 school year bear out the slow but steady return of Black families: Black students accounted for almost 43 percent of public and private school enrollment, up from about 39 percent in the second year after Katrina but not yet at the pre-storm level of nearly half of all enrolled students (49.1 percent).¹⁴ Total school enrollment is now 78 percent of the pre-Katrina level.

The 2005 hurricanes clearly affected the presence of Latinos along the Gulf Coast.  Census Bureau data show that the Hispanic population in the hardest hit Louisiana and Mississippi areas grew significantly in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, an increase primarily attributable to migrant workers seeking employment opportunities related to the recovery.  It appears that many of these workers are undocumented migrants with limited English proficiency, characteristics that make them particularly vulnerable to an undercount.

ACS estimates for 2007 show the Hispanic population of Orleans Parish growing from three percent in 2000 to 4.5 percent in 2007, but that number may well underestimate the influx. The GNOCDC concludes that, "many undocumented migrants do not feel comfortable responding to surveys and are not likely to be represented in these numbers."¹⁵ Enrollment data for the most recent school year support the assertion that Latinos migrated to the region after Katrina.  The New Orleans Index shows that a growing share of public and private school students are Hispanic, up from 3.6 percent in the year preceding Katrina to 5.6 percent last year.¹⁶

The Mexican Mobile Consulate Survey, conducted in the spring of 2007, showed that nearly three-quarters of Mexicans in the New Orleans area arrived after the storm in search of work.  Most did not intend to stay permanently; in fact, most said they planned to stay less than two years or that they didn't know how long they would stay, an uncertainty indicative of their fragile legal status (almost 9 in 10 reported that they were undocumented migrants).  While a majority of post-Katrina migrants to the New Orleans area were unaccompanied young men (more than 60 percent, however, reported being married), 37 percent were accompanied by family members and nearly a quarter were women.¹⁷

In Mississippi, the Latino share of the population increased by about 50 percent in the coastal counties between 2000 and 2007, and almost doubled over that period in both Biloxi and Gulfport.  Similar proportional increases in the Latino population were seen in Mobile and Baldwin Counties in Alabama, although not in the city of Mobile.

The Gulf Coast also is home to an Asian-American population that, because of its concentration in marine-related occupations, was especially vulnerable to the catastrophic 2005 hurricanes.  According to a post-Katrina analysis by the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC), "Asian Americans constituted a significant percentage of the impacted ethnic populations in the Gulf Coast."  The AAJC researchers found:

According to the United States Census 2000, over 32,000 Asian Americans resided in the Hurricane Katrina impacted parishes in Louisiana. 37,910 Asian Americans in Louisiana spoke another language besides English. 11, 859 spoke English "less than very well." In addition, over 6,500 Asian Americans were living in the Mississippi impacted counties prior to the hurricane. Mississippi was home to over 18,000 Asian Americans, 2,204 of whom spoke another language besides English. 1,062 spoke English "less than very well."

The largest Asian community was Vietnamese American (over 45 percent of Asian Americans in Louisiana reported this ethnicity); many Vietnamese Americans, as well as Laotians, Thai, and Cambodians in the region, have limited English proficiency.  Before the storm, "New Orleans was home to the oldest Filipino community in the nation. South Asians also constituted a significant population in Louisiana, with many working in the hotel industry. Other groups in the region included Chinese and Korean Americans, some of whom were also involved in the fisheries industry."¹⁸

The report notes that local government agencies had limited contact with Asian-American communities prior to Hurricane Katrina, with Buddhist and Catholic organizations serving as centers of cultural activities, support, and emergency relief.  Many Vietnamese Americans in fishing and shrimping industries were linguistically isolated, and they had not established routine financial practices common in the U.S. but not in their home country.  The economic, social, and linguistic isolation of these communities presented serious challenges to their participation in disaster relief efforts, and will present similar challenges to an accurate census count.

Two years after Hurricane Katrina, there were 60,648 Asian Americans living in Louisiana, over sixty percent of whom were foreign born; well over a third had limited English proficiency. In Alabama, there were 43,838 Asian Americans, nearly three-quarters of them foreign-born; as in Louisiana, roughly 37 percent had limited English proficiency.  There were 23,584 Asian Americans in Mississippi, about 65 percent foreign born and a third with limited English proficiency.¹⁹

Next Section: Demographics and Hard-to-Count Areas

14. New Orleans Index, August 2009, p. 9.

15. Greater New Orleans Community Data Center web site, "How many Latinos have come to New Orleans since the storm?"

16. New Orleans Index, August 2009, pg. 9.

17. Fussell, Elizabeth, "Mexican Mobile Consulate Survey," Washington State University Sociology Department and  International Health and Development Program, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, May 2007.

18. Hurricane Katrina: Models for Effective Emergency Response in the Asian American Community, Asian American Justice Center.

19. U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey estimates 2005-2007.