it declined slightly thereafter as migration for employment picked up particularly within the european union and again more recently as large inflows of refugee and asylum seekers arrived the gender composition of migrant stocks has been affected only very marginally however as once again the migration categories in which women account for the highest shares are those most likely to be a permanent movement while men are often perceived as the principal immigrants the firstcomers who arrived as workers students or refugees women account for most of the spouses who either accompany or join the principal migrants later a pattern sometimes referred to as that of trailing wives cooke family migration trends may thus be associated chiefly with women even though family migrants also include minoraged children whose gender distribution is balanced