Caesar Augustus' census in Luke 2 - is it a-historical? Fabricated story? Luke 2 speaks of a census by Caesar Augustus that everyone should go to their town of birth to be counted/enrolled. 

I recall, from a number curses on "historical Jesus", that there is a claim that no census of this type was ever recorded before, or since, that it was never roman way of performing a census, and that we ought to have records of such a massive movement of people as it would entail. 

Argument of course is, that Luke 2 a fabricated story in order to prove Jesus royal lineage.

Does anyone know how much truth there is to this argument?
This question is addressed here: http://www.comereason.org/roman-census.asp

The article cites references that corroborate that Rome periodically conducted censuses, and that Caesar Augustus made frequent use of the practice. Some were widespread, while other were restricted to a single region. A brief quote:


  Indeed, it seems that Caesar Augustus was the type of leader who
  ordered many censuses in his day. Records exist to show that
  Roman-controlled Egypt had begun a census as early as 10 B.C. and it
  was repeated every 14 years. And Augustus himself notes in his Res
  Gestae (The Deeds of Augustus) that he ordered three wide-spread
  censuses of Roman citizens, one in 28B.C., one in 8 B.C. and one in 14
  A.D.2 In between there are several other censuses that happened
  locally across Rome. Luke's account corroborates the idea of multiple
  censuses for Judea when he writes "This was the first census taken
  while Quirinius was governor of Syria." Certainly, the word "first"
  implies that more than one census happened.


The article also suggests that Quirinius may have served in Judea on two occasions, once as procurator in charge of the census, and later as governor, in light of the different terms used to describe the two roles.