TEAM AT NIDI
Prof. Dr. Helga de Valk
Principal Investigator
Helga de Valk is director of the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) and professor of Migration and the life course at the University of Groningen. She is part of the Migration and migrants group at NIDI and leads a research group around her ERC project MYMOVE. Her research focuses on migration and integration issues, the transition to adulthood of immigrant youth, union and family formation, the second generation, segregation, and European mobility. She was awarded an ERC Starting Grant (2010 FamiLife) and acquired an ERC Consolidator Grant (2018 MYMOVE). Furthermore she led and was part of a range of national and international projects funded amongst others by Horizon 2020 and Norface. She was editor in chief of the European Journal of Population (EJP; 2014-2018) and winner of the 2016 European Demography Award. She is currently president of the European Association for Population Studies (EAPS) and member of the Advisory Committee for Migration Affairs (ACVZ).
Dr. Rafael Costa
Postdoctoral Researcher
Rafael Costa is senior researcher at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) and affiliated researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and University of Antwerp. His research focuses on spatial demography, in particular the patterns of demographic change in space and time and the influence of space and networks on demographic behaviour and socioeconomic outcomes. He holds a Master’s degree in Population Studies (2009) and a PhD in Social Sciences (2015) from the University of Louvain.
Gusta Wachter
Postdoctoral Researcher
Gusta Wachter is a postdoctoral researcher at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI). Her research focuses mainly on migration, health, family behaviour and how these interact. She has a background in human geography, spatial planning and pedagogical sciences and holds a Research Master’s degree in Migration, Ethnic Relations and Multiculturalism from the University of Utrecht. Before starting her PhD at NIDI she worked as a researcher at the Municipal Health Office of Amsterdam.
Joeke Kuyvenhoven
PhD Candidate
Joeke Kuyvenhoven has a background in interdisciplinary social sciences and completed the Research Master Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. Her research interests include internal mobility, neighbourhood effects and socio-spatial inequalities. Within the MYMOVE project, her PhD research focuses on the role of the neighbourhood for differential patterns and consequences of childhood internal mobiliy.
Alon Pertzikovitz
PhD Candidate
Alon Pertzikovitz has a background in Sociology, Anthropology and Latin-American studies, holds a Master's degree in Demography (2019) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a European Research Certificate of Demography (2021) from the European Doctoral School of Demography. His research interests include current demographic trends, international and internal migration, fertility patterns and demographic family behavior. Within the MyMove project, Alon's PhD research focuses on the nexus between migration in childhood and later life demographic outcomes.
Juul Henkens
PhD Candidate
Juul Henkens has a background interdisciplinary social sciences and social psychology. She holds her first Master's degree in Youth Studies and her second Research Master’s degree in Development and Socialization of Childhood and Adolescence at Utrecht University. In her research for the MyMove project, she focusses on the effects of internal mobility in childhood and adolescence on health and well-being in adolescence and young adulthood.
Lea Kröner
Research Intern
Lea Kröner has a background in interdisciplinary social sciences and is in her final semester of the master's degree program in Sociology and Social Research at Utrecht University. Lea is conducting research on the gender role attitudes of native and second-generation Turkish adolescents in Germany as part of her internship at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI).
Kaja Warnke
Student Assistant
Kaja Warnke has a social psychological background as an upcoming graduate of the Research Master's program Migration, Ethnic Relations, and Multiculturalism at Utrecht University. Within the MyMove project Kaja provides both scientific and practical assistance.