August 06, 2026 | News | PHD
Congratulations, Athina Anastasiadou!
Athina Anastasiadou from the Laboratory of Migration and Mobility at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), successfully defended her doctoral thesis, “The Second Migrant: The role of gender in demographic theories, methods, and data for migration research“, at University of Groningen. The thesis was awarded “cum laude”. In the Netherlands, this is a rare distinction that is awarded in roughly 5% of the cases.
Athina Anastasiadou successfully defended her dissertation. © private
In her thesis, Athina addresses that gap left by the male-centric theories and a lack of gender-disaggregated data by integrating insights from geography, history, and sociology to examine how gender influences migration patterns, trajectories, and outcomes across countries, time, and contexts.
It critically evaluates existing migration theories and models, revealing how their assumptions often obscure gendered experiences. By leveraging diverse data sources and methodological approaches, this work demonstrates how more inclusive frameworks can improve the accuracy and relevance of demographic analysis.
“Athina’s dissertation stands out for its intellectual ambition as it seeks to reshape how we conceptualize, measure, and predict migration by integrating gender theory, demographic methods, and computational approaches. The thesis moves beyond documenting gender differences in migration by showing how gender shapes the very foundations of migration studies. It demonstrates that the historical male bias in migration research has produced systematic gaps in our understanding of migration processes and can reduce the accuracy of demographic forecasts. Thus, it calls for a more gender-sensitive approach to migration research, one that recognizes diverse migration trajectories and strengthens both scientific understanding and policy-relevant forecasting”, explains Emilio Zagheni, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) and supervisor to Athina’s thesis.
Athina Anastasiadou participated in the International Max Planck Research School for Population, Health, and Data Science (IMPRS-PHDS), a doctoral program combining demography, epidemiology, and data science. She also was part of the Graduate School of Spatial Sciences of the University of Groningen.
Athina Anastasiadous’ thesis was supervised by Emilio Zagheni (Director of the MPIDR), Helga de Valk (Director of the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) | University of Groningen), and Ebru Sanlitürk (MPIDR).
Publications
Anastasiadou, A.; Kim, J.; Şanlitürk, A. E.; de Valk, H. A. G.; Zagheni, E.:
Population and Development Review 50:4, 961–996. (2024)
Anastasiadou, A.; Zagheni, E.; de Valk, H. A. G.:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 122:28, e2500874122–e2500874122. (2025)
Jacobs, E. M.; Theile, T.; Perrotta, D.; Zhao, X.; Anastasiadou, A.; Zagheni, E.:
Population and Development Review 51:3, 963–994. (2025)
Neville, R.; Anastasiadou, A.:
Migration Policy Practice 14:3, 34–43. (2025)