It amazes me how people can accept, or at least think plausible, the idea that the Romans required everyone to travel to their home town in order that a census could be conducted. I have spoken to people who are not religious who entertain the notion that it could have been the case. If you want to know how many people live in a town now, you don't require that those who are incomers move out. A requirement that everyone moved to their home town would have created massive disruption, and would have taken months to implement. Of course, we know that the political reason for the claim is so that it can be claimed that Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem, in order to match a prophecy and give legitimacy to the claim that he was indeed the king of his people.