ACS Data Users Group

I am currently conducting research on the integration of the African foreign born into U.S. society, using 1980, 1990, 2000 IPUMS and 2010 ACS data. One of the three dimensions along which I want to examine the integration of the African foreign born is their demographic/marital integration. Specifically, I am interested in examining the extent of interracial/intraracial marriages among the three major racial groups from Africa -- black, white, and Asian Africans -- as well as such marriages between the African racial groups and comparable racial groups in the U.S: black, white, and U.S.Asian Indian Americans. I am currently analyzing the data and would need some help on joining husbands and wives. I do have some ideas; but, since this would be my first attempt at doing interracial/inraracial marriages, I would certainly appreciate getting some help from any one who has more experience doing this. This is also my first time participating in this online community. I hope that this comes through. I may be contacted at my home e-mail: konia1@verizon.net Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Konia T. Kollehlon

Hi Konia,
The IPUMS data helpfully includes a constructed variable called SPLOC (spouse's location) that could be used to join spouses in a household:
usa.ipums.org/.../chapter5.shtml

It's not going to be 100% accurate since the ACS questionnaire is not designed to identify everyone's relationship to everyone else in the household. But it should be accurate enough for your purposes.

The Pew Research Center has conducted a similar analysis of intermarriage using decennial census and ACS data so it might help to look at the methods that they used:
http://pewrsr.ch/21Jx3Ik

-Mark