Residential Mobility and Attainment of Interracial Couples

Ryan Gabriel, University of Washington
Kyle Crowder, University of Washington

In this paper we utilize data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics linked to neighborhood and metropolitan data from multiple population censuses to compare the residential mobility and attainment of several groupings of mixed-race couples to racially homogomous couples. As a first analysis of the topic, we examine these couples’ access to, and movement between, neighborhoods characterized by their levels of racial and ethnic compositional diversity – mobility patterns that continually reshape broader patterns of residential segregation by race. Analyses reveal that mixed couples tend to be located in tracts with significantly higher levels of racial and ethnic diversity than are white or black monoracial couples. However, the level of neighborhood diversity also varies substantially across mixed-race couples. Additionally, we find evidence that much of the difference in neighborhood diversity between mixed and monoracial couples reflects differences in the racial composition of the broader metropolitan area.