India Accounts for Majority of Migrants in Australia

Bangalore: India has become the leading source of permanent migrants to Australia for the first time, revealed Australia's Migration Trends study. It was noted that this was the first time India and China have topped the list. Indicating the increasing prominence of Asia to Australia, seven of the top 10 source countries for Australian immigrants during 2011-2012 were from the region, the study said. It was noted that there were 29,018 permanent migrants from India in 2011-12, up 12.7 percent on the previous year, reported AFP.

Immigration minister Brendan O'Connor was quoted by AFP, saying, "Between 1996 and 2011, Australia's overseas-born population grew by more than 40 percent to reach six million."

He added that "This was more than double the rate for the Australian-born population and is essential in addressing the demographic challenges of an ageing population.” He also said “With the government's strong emphasis on skilled migration, this sort of growth is also crucial to ensuring depth in Australia's labour force."

It was seen that China was the second source of permanent migrants to Australia as visa places fell from 29,546 to 25,509. In the same period British arrivals increased to 25,273 from 23,931.  Philippines and South Africa took the fourth and fifth place respectively.

The report revealed that during the past 15 years the number of Indian-born Australian residents increased four times while Chinese-born residents went up three times. On the other hand, Britain remained the main birthplace of migrants, with 1.18 million calling Australia home from a total population of 23 million. New Zealanders were noted to be the second biggest in terms of main birthplace of migrants (564,920). It was followed by China (391,060).

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