The Residential Mobility of Mixed-Race Couples between Poor and Non-Poor Neighborhoods

• In Event: 083 - Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) Research Session. Issues in Inequality, Race, and Social Structure

Abstract

Marriage and cohabitation between members of different racial and ethnic groups have increased dramatically over recent decades. Despite this dramatic demographic shift, we still know relatively little about how the growing numbers of mixed-race couples are faring in existing systems of residential stratification. Previous research on the residential attainment of mixed-race couples often finds them residing in diverse neighborhoods. However, we have yet to understand the relationship these couples have to neighborhoods of differing economic statuses. While there is evidence that mixed-race marriage is somewhat selective of the highest-status members of at least some groups, we do not know if they can turn their relatively higher status position compared to mono-racial minority couples into non-poor neighborhoods. To address this issue I conduct a prospective analysis using longitudinal data between 1985 and 2011 from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics linked to neighborhood- and metropolitan-level data from multiple population censuses to assess the residential mobility patterns of mixed-race couples between poor and non-poor neighborhoods.

Author

• Ryan Gabriel, University of Washington