I am director of the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) and Professor of Migration and the Life Course at the University of Groningen. I am part of the Migration and Migrants group at NIDI and lead a research group centered around my ERC project MYMOVE. My research focuses on migration and integration, the transition to adulthood of immigrant youth, union and family formation, the second generation, segregation, and European mobility. I was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2010 (FamiLife) and an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2018 (MYMOVE).
In addition, I have led and contributed to a range of national and international projects funded, among others, by Horizon 2020 and Norface. From 2014 to 2018, I served as Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Population. In 2016, I received the European Demography Award. I currently serve as Honorary President of the European Association for Population Studies (EAPS) and as Vice Chair of the Dutch State Committee (Staatscommissie) on Demographic Developments 2050.
