In the past decade, immigration and net migration into the UK have increased substantially. At the same time it has become more diversified, not only in terms of countries of origin but also the different forms of entry, statuses and rights conferred by the state. There are also large variations in the proportion of female nationals among the many nationalities present in the UK, with an average of 48.6% in 2006 (Salt, 2006), rising to over 60% for the Philippines and a number of European states, but falling to below 40% for those from Bangladesh and Iran. In the most recent flows, the largest nationalities, such as Polish, Indian, Lithuanian and Slovakian, currently dominating labour migration, have relatively low proportions of women.

Although women are present in all flows, each form of entry reveals very different proportions of females. Asylum seekers are the least feminised group of entrants (30% of principal applicants and 53% of dependants in 2004) in contrast to family migration, which is around two thirds female. The third major route is labour migration where the proportion of females varies considerably by nationality and sector of employment. However, the UK's global position and relatively open labour markets, due in part to its colonial links, have meant that, unlike many other European states, female migrants are to be found across a range of employment sectors and sites, both skilled and less skilled (Kofman et al, 2005).

Immigration policies contribute to shaping the gendered nature of these flows. The intersection of gender with other social divisions such as nationality, education, and economic, social and cultural resources in conjunction with immigration policies also create a complex matrix of stratification. The gendered outcomes and stratified rights and access to settlement and citizenship are not necessarily overtly enunciated but result from the ways in which the criteria relating to different forms of immigration are applied. So too do gendered representations of particular forms of migration impact on the development of policies. Asylum seekers are largely seen as young mobile men while family migrants are primarily women, less interested in joining the workforce than men (Kofman, 2004).

There has, however, been no comprehensive study of how policies influence the arrival and settlement of women migrants even though (often outmoded) gendered assumptions underlie policy.