By — Frances Kai-Hwa Wang Frances Kai-Hwa Wang Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/michigan-lawmakers-are-considering-a-state-level-mena-category-heres-what-that-would-mean Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Michigan lawmakers are considering a state-level MENA category. Here’s what that would mean Nation Apr 4, 2024 2:57 PM EDT DEARBORN, Mich. — Michigan has one of the nation’s largest concentrations of Arab Americans and people with origins in the Middle East and North Africa. But because of the way the government collects data, it is hard to know exactly how many people this includes and how to best get services and funding allocated to those communities. Michigan lawmakers in February of this year proposed two bills that would allow the state to add a designation for people with origins in the Middle East or North Africa (MENA) when collecting demographic data — a tool supporters say will lead to better support for health and education and other community resources across the state. READ MORE: Why Arab Americans are pushing for a ‘Middle East or North African’ category on the census Democratic state Rep. Alabas Farhat, who co-sponsored the bills, told the NewsHour that the intent of the bills’ sponsors is to make sure that Arab and MENA American communities are accounted for. “When they’re not being counted, data can make a person and make a community feel totally invisible,” Farhat said. “And when you are invisible in the eyes of data, then you are invisible in the eyes of policymakers who rely on that data to make decisions,” he added. Rep. Alabas Farhat discusses legislation with Rep. Kevin Coleman on the Michigan House floor. January 24, 2023. Photo courtesy of Rep. Alabas Farhat Community advocates have long pushed for such a change for the U.S. census and other federal documentation, which have categorized most people from the MENA region as white since the early 1900s. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has just announced a revision of federal standards on how data on race and ethnicity should be collected, including a new category for Middle Eastern or North African. Hispanic or Latino is another new category. Federal agencies have until March 2029 to get their data points in line with the new categories ahead of the 2030 census. Typically, once federal standards have been set, states and localities slowly follow suit. On this issue, cities and states have been leading the way. The state of Illinois has already passed a law to collect data for MENA American individuals beginning July 1, 2025. California is considering a similar bill. If passed this legislative session, Michigan’s bills would compel the state to begin collecting racial or ethnic data for people with origins in the Middle East or North Africa with a MENA classification by the end of 2024. Along with the proposals at the state level, some jurisdictions in Michigan have already started to collect this data. The city of Dearborn collected MENA data starting in 2023 as part of its first-ever community health assessment, with a specific focus on the Arab American community. Earlier, in the midst of the pandemic, Wayne County began offering a MENA category at vaccination sites to improve local COVID data. Michigan’s statewide proposal is not dependent upon the federal government’s latest decision. The two bills, House Bills 5447 and 5448, are currently in committee. READ MORE: What ‘uncommitted’ voters in Michigan want Some may point to action by the federal government and question why Michigan or other states need to act on their own. “Even if we had the data that was collected at the federal level, it would be years before we can get our hands on it, just because it does take such a long time. And we want this data as soon as possible,” Sara A. Ismail, a public policy associate at National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC), said at a March event in Dearborn focused on data disaggregation efforts. The announcement of a MENA category for federal data collection should only boost support for Michigan’s proposals, advocates say. “There’s a huge benefit for us as a state to be able to spend our budget dollars more smartly and to be able to structure our policy to reflect the diversity of our state,” Farhat said. The need for data at both state and federal levels The federal standards for collecting data on race and ethnicity guide how federal agencies collect data, such as for the U.S. census, household surveys, and benefit application forms. They were first developed in 1977 as a response to comply with civil rights laws and to ensure that all federal agencies collect and provide consistent data on race and ethnicity. Those standards were revised in 1997. Most people from the MENA region have been racially categorized by the federal government as white since the early 1900s. But being in this category does not line up with their experience and identity today, and Arab and MENA American communities have struggled to prove with data the challenges and inequities they face without more nuanced categories account for their race and ethnicities. National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC) advocating for a MENA category during their annual Arab American Advocacy Days in Washington D.C. in June 2023. Photo courtesy of National Network for Arab American Communities The OMB revision announced last week, the first in close to three decades, creates a new racial category for people with origins in the MENA region. It also creates a combined race and ethnicity question, eliminating what critics called a confusing two-step process that was out of step with how many people identify. People filling out federal forms will soon have the option to select multiple ethnicity options in this category, a change that advocates expect to allow for a more disaggregated view of the Hispanic/Latino and MENA American population, among others. Before this change, MENA American communities in the U.S. “struggled to quantify the inequities they face in their daily lives, from education to small business to healthcare and research to language access,” Ismail said. “Nationally, the estimation is 3.5 to 5.1 million,” said Germine Awad, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan who has worked extensively on issues of identity in the Arab and MENA American communities. “No one knows [the exact number]. That’s the point.” READ MORE: How supporting students during Ramadan helps build feelings of belonging Because the federal government has not previously collected this data, it has generally been left to community organizations to estimate the population of Arab Americans and people with origins in the MENA region. Each organization does this differently, and so the estimates can vary widely, depending on the purpose of the survey, techniques used and which countries of origin or ethnic groups are included. The 2020 U.S. census offered for the first time an option to write in a country of origin for every racial category. About 3.5 million people in the white racial category wrote in a country from the MENA region alone or in combination with another group. Lebanon, Iran, and Egypt were the three largest MENA countries of origin identified. In previous years, if people wrote in a country from the MENA region, their answers would have been recorded as white. According to the 2020 census, just more than 310,000 people living in Michigan reported origins in the MENA region using this write-in category. But the 2020 census numbers represent “a severe undercount” because of the nature of write-in responses, Awad said. “It’s like a snapshot of who is motivated enough to write it in,” Awad added. READ MORE: How gardens enable refugees and immigrants to put down roots in new communities Being undercounted, especially in a minority community, only exacerbates inequities in representation and resource allocation. In much of Awad’s research, she examines Arab and MENA Americans’ experiences of discrimination and bias. One of her studies collected identity information with an additional MENA checkbox and demonstrated that if there is a MENA checkbox, people will check it. This study convinced the Census Bureau to test a MENA category when conducting the much larger 2015 national content test. She said her work helped reinforce what the community had long said, “Hey, we’re not a white community.” “The problem is that we know there are disparities, but we don’t have the evidence for disparities,” Awad said. For example, Arab Americans are at a higher predisposition for hypertension, diabetes, and certain types of cancers, Farhat said. However, since Arab Americans are classified as white, it is harder to track and harder to offer more focused health care. READ MORE: A visit to this market turns up Ramadan decorations and growing Muslim visibility in Michigan During the COVID-19 pandemic, many small businesses across the country struggled to stay in business. Some loans were offered to help minority-owned businesses. However, since Arab Americans and Americans with origins in the Middle East and North Africa are categorized by the federal government as white, Arab and MENA American small business owners were not able to access loans specific for minority-owned businesses. “Other small business owners were able to keep their businesses afloat when many MENA owning individuals had to shutter their doors,” Ismail said. The lack of nuance also impacts academia, as it is harder to track college admissions, campus enrollment rates, and higher education completion rates because the data is not being collected. Challenges of disaggregating data During the pandemic, Arab American Family Services in Illinois, a member of the National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC), advocated for the state of Illinois to track vaccine uptake in MENA American communities through use of a MENA category. “They hoped that the state data would show the success of the work they had done to educate and vaccinate their communities,” Ismail said. “However, they soon learned that just as data can bridge programs, it can also create barriers.” Because federal data categorizes MENA Americans as white, the data had to be aggregated back into the larger white category when sent to the federal U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and the work by the Illinois’ Department of Public Health to support MENA communities was lost. READ MORE: The only Arab American museum in the nation is ‘much more than a building’ This happens on smaller scales as well. Awad says sometimes schools will notice that they have a sizeable population of a particular group. “So they might collect some additional data at the school level, for example, or the district level,” Awad said. “However, for the purposes of reporting to the federal government, they then aggregate it back together under white.” “When we don’t disaggregate MENA from white, it doesn’t just hurt MENA folks. It actually hurts all ethnic minority groups, because what’s happening is that you have a group that has a nonwhite experience in the white category,” Awad added. “It’s masking disparities not only for Arab [and] MENA folks, but it’s masking disparities for all communities of color and communities that have dealt with disparities.” “We were begging people to disaggregate the data,” Awad said. “We kept on coming up against these roadblocks or people [who said] we don’t have the coders and the program that we use does not allow us to disaggregate the data. And because so many entities use minimal reporting standards, they never even capture the data to disaggregate.” READ MORE: Why Arabic ballots are now being offered in Michigan and what this means for voter access in the U.S. The more detailed ethnicity data that the federal government will now collect will also help community organizations better serve their communities in all ways. “Our communities are vibrant and not a monolith,” Ismail said. “When we look at the MENA community, it is vast and diverse. They all share common cultural traditions and language. However, the disparities faced by someone from Morocco is not the same for [someone] who is [from] Palestine. All communities deserve to have disaggregated data on their respective communities.” What is next for Michigan? While the federal government will begin collecting this demographic data, the two Michigan bills will help the state collect its own data years ahead of when data will come back from the federal government — likely by the end of 2024, if passed. These bills will also protect the state’s interest in collecting this demographic information in case federal guidelines change in the future. “If we get these bills across the finish line this year, no matter what happens at the federal level, we will not have to worry about any change of administration,” said Michigan state Sen. Darrin Camilleri at the data disaggregation event. “A federal administration could just change the directive, change the rule. But if we have a state law, the state of Michigan will always be able to categorize our communities.” READ MORE: Decades after ‘the Arab problem,’ Muslim and Arab Americans are leading political change in Metro Detroit Farhat said that “when we’re not tracking this data, we create scenarios where public health outcomes can be inversely impacted,” including issues like infant mortality, hypertension rates, health care related issues, cultural sensitivities, diet, health literacy and business opportunities. “So the state has to act. We can act.” Awad said having data in hand will help communities show that disparities exist and secure funding for interventions and resources across the board. “It really is at every level. It’s in hospitals having language support. It’s in schools that are getting funding to help underrepresented students now that Arab students are included in that. There are just so many different sectors in which this community is invisible and underserved. Now we’ll have the data to be able to make the argument for more resources, and resource allocation will be fairer,” Awad said. “When we remedy disparities that include Arab [Americans], it helps remedy disparities for all communities, almost all marginalized communities and communities of color,” she added. New federal OMB race and ethnicity question with minimum categories, multiple detailed checkboxes, and write-in response areas with example groups, effective March 2024 By — Frances Kai-Hwa Wang Frances Kai-Hwa Wang Frances Kai-Hwa Wang is a Communities Correspondent for the PBS NewsHour out of Detroit and Dearborn, Michigan. @fkwang
DEARBORN, Mich. — Michigan has one of the nation’s largest concentrations of Arab Americans and people with origins in the Middle East and North Africa. But because of the way the government collects data, it is hard to know exactly how many people this includes and how to best get services and funding allocated to those communities. Michigan lawmakers in February of this year proposed two bills that would allow the state to add a designation for people with origins in the Middle East or North Africa (MENA) when collecting demographic data — a tool supporters say will lead to better support for health and education and other community resources across the state. READ MORE: Why Arab Americans are pushing for a ‘Middle East or North African’ category on the census Democratic state Rep. Alabas Farhat, who co-sponsored the bills, told the NewsHour that the intent of the bills’ sponsors is to make sure that Arab and MENA American communities are accounted for. “When they’re not being counted, data can make a person and make a community feel totally invisible,” Farhat said. “And when you are invisible in the eyes of data, then you are invisible in the eyes of policymakers who rely on that data to make decisions,” he added. Rep. Alabas Farhat discusses legislation with Rep. Kevin Coleman on the Michigan House floor. January 24, 2023. Photo courtesy of Rep. Alabas Farhat Community advocates have long pushed for such a change for the U.S. census and other federal documentation, which have categorized most people from the MENA region as white since the early 1900s. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has just announced a revision of federal standards on how data on race and ethnicity should be collected, including a new category for Middle Eastern or North African. Hispanic or Latino is another new category. Federal agencies have until March 2029 to get their data points in line with the new categories ahead of the 2030 census. Typically, once federal standards have been set, states and localities slowly follow suit. On this issue, cities and states have been leading the way. The state of Illinois has already passed a law to collect data for MENA American individuals beginning July 1, 2025. California is considering a similar bill. If passed this legislative session, Michigan’s bills would compel the state to begin collecting racial or ethnic data for people with origins in the Middle East or North Africa with a MENA classification by the end of 2024. Along with the proposals at the state level, some jurisdictions in Michigan have already started to collect this data. The city of Dearborn collected MENA data starting in 2023 as part of its first-ever community health assessment, with a specific focus on the Arab American community. Earlier, in the midst of the pandemic, Wayne County began offering a MENA category at vaccination sites to improve local COVID data. Michigan’s statewide proposal is not dependent upon the federal government’s latest decision. The two bills, House Bills 5447 and 5448, are currently in committee. READ MORE: What ‘uncommitted’ voters in Michigan want Some may point to action by the federal government and question why Michigan or other states need to act on their own. “Even if we had the data that was collected at the federal level, it would be years before we can get our hands on it, just because it does take such a long time. And we want this data as soon as possible,” Sara A. Ismail, a public policy associate at National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC), said at a March event in Dearborn focused on data disaggregation efforts. The announcement of a MENA category for federal data collection should only boost support for Michigan’s proposals, advocates say. “There’s a huge benefit for us as a state to be able to spend our budget dollars more smartly and to be able to structure our policy to reflect the diversity of our state,” Farhat said. The need for data at both state and federal levels The federal standards for collecting data on race and ethnicity guide how federal agencies collect data, such as for the U.S. census, household surveys, and benefit application forms. They were first developed in 1977 as a response to comply with civil rights laws and to ensure that all federal agencies collect and provide consistent data on race and ethnicity. Those standards were revised in 1997. Most people from the MENA region have been racially categorized by the federal government as white since the early 1900s. But being in this category does not line up with their experience and identity today, and Arab and MENA American communities have struggled to prove with data the challenges and inequities they face without more nuanced categories account for their race and ethnicities. National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC) advocating for a MENA category during their annual Arab American Advocacy Days in Washington D.C. in June 2023. Photo courtesy of National Network for Arab American Communities The OMB revision announced last week, the first in close to three decades, creates a new racial category for people with origins in the MENA region. It also creates a combined race and ethnicity question, eliminating what critics called a confusing two-step process that was out of step with how many people identify. People filling out federal forms will soon have the option to select multiple ethnicity options in this category, a change that advocates expect to allow for a more disaggregated view of the Hispanic/Latino and MENA American population, among others. Before this change, MENA American communities in the U.S. “struggled to quantify the inequities they face in their daily lives, from education to small business to healthcare and research to language access,” Ismail said. “Nationally, the estimation is 3.5 to 5.1 million,” said Germine Awad, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan who has worked extensively on issues of identity in the Arab and MENA American communities. “No one knows [the exact number]. That’s the point.” READ MORE: How supporting students during Ramadan helps build feelings of belonging Because the federal government has not previously collected this data, it has generally been left to community organizations to estimate the population of Arab Americans and people with origins in the MENA region. Each organization does this differently, and so the estimates can vary widely, depending on the purpose of the survey, techniques used and which countries of origin or ethnic groups are included. The 2020 U.S. census offered for the first time an option to write in a country of origin for every racial category. About 3.5 million people in the white racial category wrote in a country from the MENA region alone or in combination with another group. Lebanon, Iran, and Egypt were the three largest MENA countries of origin identified. In previous years, if people wrote in a country from the MENA region, their answers would have been recorded as white. According to the 2020 census, just more than 310,000 people living in Michigan reported origins in the MENA region using this write-in category. But the 2020 census numbers represent “a severe undercount” because of the nature of write-in responses, Awad said. “It’s like a snapshot of who is motivated enough to write it in,” Awad added. READ MORE: How gardens enable refugees and immigrants to put down roots in new communities Being undercounted, especially in a minority community, only exacerbates inequities in representation and resource allocation. In much of Awad’s research, she examines Arab and MENA Americans’ experiences of discrimination and bias. One of her studies collected identity information with an additional MENA checkbox and demonstrated that if there is a MENA checkbox, people will check it. This study convinced the Census Bureau to test a MENA category when conducting the much larger 2015 national content test. She said her work helped reinforce what the community had long said, “Hey, we’re not a white community.” “The problem is that we know there are disparities, but we don’t have the evidence for disparities,” Awad said. For example, Arab Americans are at a higher predisposition for hypertension, diabetes, and certain types of cancers, Farhat said. However, since Arab Americans are classified as white, it is harder to track and harder to offer more focused health care. READ MORE: A visit to this market turns up Ramadan decorations and growing Muslim visibility in Michigan During the COVID-19 pandemic, many small businesses across the country struggled to stay in business. Some loans were offered to help minority-owned businesses. However, since Arab Americans and Americans with origins in the Middle East and North Africa are categorized by the federal government as white, Arab and MENA American small business owners were not able to access loans specific for minority-owned businesses. “Other small business owners were able to keep their businesses afloat when many MENA owning individuals had to shutter their doors,” Ismail said. The lack of nuance also impacts academia, as it is harder to track college admissions, campus enrollment rates, and higher education completion rates because the data is not being collected. Challenges of disaggregating data During the pandemic, Arab American Family Services in Illinois, a member of the National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC), advocated for the state of Illinois to track vaccine uptake in MENA American communities through use of a MENA category. “They hoped that the state data would show the success of the work they had done to educate and vaccinate their communities,” Ismail said. “However, they soon learned that just as data can bridge programs, it can also create barriers.” Because federal data categorizes MENA Americans as white, the data had to be aggregated back into the larger white category when sent to the federal U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and the work by the Illinois’ Department of Public Health to support MENA communities was lost. READ MORE: The only Arab American museum in the nation is ‘much more than a building’ This happens on smaller scales as well. Awad says sometimes schools will notice that they have a sizeable population of a particular group. “So they might collect some additional data at the school level, for example, or the district level,” Awad said. “However, for the purposes of reporting to the federal government, they then aggregate it back together under white.” “When we don’t disaggregate MENA from white, it doesn’t just hurt MENA folks. It actually hurts all ethnic minority groups, because what’s happening is that you have a group that has a nonwhite experience in the white category,” Awad added. “It’s masking disparities not only for Arab [and] MENA folks, but it’s masking disparities for all communities of color and communities that have dealt with disparities.” “We were begging people to disaggregate the data,” Awad said. “We kept on coming up against these roadblocks or people [who said] we don’t have the coders and the program that we use does not allow us to disaggregate the data. And because so many entities use minimal reporting standards, they never even capture the data to disaggregate.” READ MORE: Why Arabic ballots are now being offered in Michigan and what this means for voter access in the U.S. The more detailed ethnicity data that the federal government will now collect will also help community organizations better serve their communities in all ways. “Our communities are vibrant and not a monolith,” Ismail said. “When we look at the MENA community, it is vast and diverse. They all share common cultural traditions and language. However, the disparities faced by someone from Morocco is not the same for [someone] who is [from] Palestine. All communities deserve to have disaggregated data on their respective communities.” What is next for Michigan? While the federal government will begin collecting this demographic data, the two Michigan bills will help the state collect its own data years ahead of when data will come back from the federal government — likely by the end of 2024, if passed. These bills will also protect the state’s interest in collecting this demographic information in case federal guidelines change in the future. “If we get these bills across the finish line this year, no matter what happens at the federal level, we will not have to worry about any change of administration,” said Michigan state Sen. Darrin Camilleri at the data disaggregation event. “A federal administration could just change the directive, change the rule. But if we have a state law, the state of Michigan will always be able to categorize our communities.” READ MORE: Decades after ‘the Arab problem,’ Muslim and Arab Americans are leading political change in Metro Detroit Farhat said that “when we’re not tracking this data, we create scenarios where public health outcomes can be inversely impacted,” including issues like infant mortality, hypertension rates, health care related issues, cultural sensitivities, diet, health literacy and business opportunities. “So the state has to act. We can act.” Awad said having data in hand will help communities show that disparities exist and secure funding for interventions and resources across the board. “It really is at every level. It’s in hospitals having language support. It’s in schools that are getting funding to help underrepresented students now that Arab students are included in that. There are just so many different sectors in which this community is invisible and underserved. Now we’ll have the data to be able to make the argument for more resources, and resource allocation will be fairer,” Awad said. “When we remedy disparities that include Arab [Americans], it helps remedy disparities for all communities, almost all marginalized communities and communities of color,” she added. New federal OMB race and ethnicity question with minimum categories, multiple detailed checkboxes, and write-in response areas with example groups, effective March 2024