As you may know, I have been doing immigration research for many years, mostly using Census/ACS data. Sometimes I select the immigrant sample based solely on country of birth but sometimes I drop from the sample those born abroad to American parents or those born in U.S. territories. It turns out, however, that if we want to use (1) 1980 Census data and (2) the years in the U.S. variable, we really need to drop those born abroad of American parents. Why? Because in 1980, the year of immigration variable is only available for "foreign-born persons who were not citizens at birth. See the relevant section of the codebook.
Conclusion for those doing immigration research using 1980 U.S. Census IPUMS data: Use the citizen variable to select the immigrant sample if you want to control for years in the United States (or year of migration).
Conclusion for everyone else: Read the codebook carefully!
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