I also thought this was interesting:
Jonah:
After reading your Corner post about East German Neo-Nazis, the following came to mind:
I toured much of Europe (as a student would even though I was in my 40s at the time), in 1996. In Prague, I conversed with a German engineer who had come there to help his West German firm set up a branch factory. He said that back in Germany, his firm would not branch to the eastern part, because the ethnically-identical east Germans wanted the same wages as in the western part, but did not yet have western values. In the Czech Republic, the skilled worforce was just as good as in eastern Germany, they could be paid less, and they didn’t complain as much (so he said).
Presumably, that would mean that the east German industrial skilled workforce (which would be predominantly male) would have low employment prospects, even if they migrated. But the general office workforce (predominantly female) might not face the same problem, and thus would be more mobile.
My guess is that these are the forces at work. It is only a guess.