The 2018 Master Thesis Award was granted to Bettina Hünteler for the thesis entitled “Spatial Immobility Related to the Family – Do Geographic Proximity to the Parents and Intergenerational Support Exchange Matter for Migration Decisions within Germany?”.
Bettina Hünteler wrote her thesis at the Population Research Centre, University of Groningen (Faculty of Spatial Sciences), under the supervision of Clara Mulder, Roberta Rutigliano and Michael Wagner. The NIDI-NVD Master Thesis Award honors the best master thesis in the Netherlands in the field of population studies and was presented during the Dutch Demography Day on Wednesday, November 28 in Utrecht by Leo van Wissen (chair of the NVD).
In her thesis, Bettina studied the effect of family ties on migration decisions in Germany. She investigated how spatial proximity between adult children and their parents influence the likelihood of migration. The committee was very impressed by the high quality of this thesis. Bettina clearly formulated the problem statement, objectives and research questions, provided a critical discussion of relevant theories and clearly documented the methodological and analytical choices made. Together with thoroughly worked out analyses and reflections this resulted in well-informed conclusions and recommendations.