Despite the series of attacks on its students Down Under, India has overtaken the UK to become the number one country in terms of its citizens migrating to Australia. According to the latest data available with the Australia?s department of immigration and citizenship, India has become a leading source of skilled migrants to the country, cornering 6,800 immigration visas for the first quarter of 2009-10 (July-September) as against 6,200 for UK citizens and 5,000 for Chinese students.
In the financial year 2008-09 (July to June), the Australian department of immigration and citizenship granted the maximum number of visas to skilled professionals from the UK (23,200) followed by India (20,100) and China (13,900).
?Since India has a large population of highly skilled people and there will be an ongoing need for skilled migrants in Australia for years to come, we expect that India will continue to feature as a leading source country for migration to Australia in the years ahead,? Michael Willard, director, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, told FE.
Of the skilled visas granted to Indian citizens in 2008-09, 16,075 were in the general skilled migration category, out of which 4,078 were granted to former Indian international students who had completed qualifications in Australia.
The top occupational groups of Indian migrants under onshore general skilled migration included business and information professionals (accountants, auditors and corporate treasurers, business and information professionals (computing professionals), science, building and engineering professionals, food tradespersons and nurses.
?Growth in numbers from India reflects an increase in interest of Indian nationals who have the requisite skills to migrate to Australia, and despite all that has happened in the past, there has been no drop in immigration applications till date,? Willard added.
In 2008-09, while UK remained Australia?s largest source of migrants with an outcome of 30,590 or 17.9% of the total migration programme, there was a significant reduction from 21.2% of the programme in 2006-07 and 22.5% in 2005-06. However, the outcome from India increased in the last financial year at 25,042 as compared to 22,146 in 2007-08, which is 14.6% of the Australia?s total outcome of the migration programme respectively.
?Geographically, India is more close to Australia than to either US or UK. Moreover, the immigrations norms are yet not so stringent in Australia than in other developed countries and this makes the country a preferred destination for skilled professionals who are seeking job opportunities overseas,? an analyst said.