The basic purpose of the alternative enumeration studies was to ascertain the causes of undercount in hard-to-enumerate populations. Chinese Americans fall within this category especially when they reside in a predominantly ethnic enclave like New York’s Chinatown. In a neighborhood like this, the people are insulated and isolated from the mainstream, and most residents do not speak English. The Census Bureau surmised correctly that a sample Chinese American community should be targeted for an undercount study.