Australian immigration reveals Indians biggest minority community in Australia
by Mary Jones - May 31, 2010
Australia, 31st May: According to the latest figures revealed by Australian immigration department, India is the greatest source of migrants to Australia and is the fastest-growing minority community in the nation.
The official data says that the Indian population living in Australia has almost doubled in the last six years, thus making India the largest migrants’ source to Australia.
In the year 2007-08, the increase in the number of Indian migrants had been the greatest than any other nation including New Zealand or Britain, the Australian immigration data maintains. Hence, the Indian community in Australia has overtaken Italians in becoming the fourth-biggest migrant community in Australia. In the period of six years between mid-2002 and mid-2008, the Indian population in Australia grew from 110,563 to 239,295.
The year 2007-08 saw arrival of nearly 39,529 new immigrants in Australia who immigrated to Australia either on Australian student visas or for taking up jobs in Australia.
Drawing a comparison with the migrants coming from other nations to Australia during the same year, the nation saw an increase of Chinese-born population by 32,563, New Zealand natives increased by 31,248 and UK born population increased by 17,397.
The year 2008-09 witnessed even faster growth of Indian population in Australia as nearly 40 percent Indians, totaling up to 40,000 people, grew in Australia. However, the year is being expected as a peak year since net migration in the year 2009-10 will decline by nearly 50,000 people.
The fact is that India has continued to be the biggest source of permanent residents in Australia’s Victoria for the seventh year consecutively. The region witnessed a net increase of 9,004 permanent residents in Australia from India. China came second by having 8,034 permanent residents in Victoria, followed by the UK with 5,023, New Zealand with 4,472 and Sri Lanka with 2,569.
Meanwhile, the Britons are the biggest migrant community in Australia. The latest Australian immigration figures state that there are nearly 1.166 million British people in Australia, which comprise nearly 6 percent of the total Australian population. New Zealanders were the second-largest minority group in Australia in mid-2008.
Australia also has Italians, Hungarians, Greeks, Serbs, Maltese, Cypriots, Croatians, Dutch, and Lebanese migrants.
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