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INDIA has become Australia's biggest source of migrants for the first time, eclipsing China and the once-dominant Britain.
In 2011-12, permanent migration from India reached 29,018 - 15.7 per cent of the total program, according to figures released yesterday by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen.
"The scale of recent Indian migration is striking," said the University of Melbourne's Lesleyanne Hawthorne, who studies migration and workforce needs.
"We can assume large numbers were former international students who had qualified onshore."
In 2010-11, China was Australia's No 1 source of permanent migrants with 29,547 visas. The year before it was Britain, with 25,738 migrants. Britain had held the top position right back to 1996-97, when current records began, Mr Bowen's spokeswoman said.
However, India and China grew strongly as source countries last decade, partly in step with the international student business.
A decade ago, loose government policy led to an explosion in courses such as accounting, cookery and hairdressing that would give students skilled migration visas. Job outcomes were poor, with weak English a problem.
New rules mean that in future it will be harder for non-native speakers of English to qualify as skilled migrants but many thousands of ex-students are still in the queue for permanent residence.
Amitabh Mattoo, director of the Melbourne-based Australia-India Institute, welcomed yesterday's migration figures, saying India and Australia had much in common as "democratic, English-speaking, federal" countries.
He predicted that India, with 500 million people under 25, would continue to be a source of skilled migration.
"While most of the rest of the world is ageing, India will remain young for the next 20-25 years," Professor Mattoo said.
In the latest figures, a quarter of Indian migrants were approved in visa categories associated with ex-students and family members already in Australia.
In the skilled stream of the migration program, there were still 143,000 people "in the pipeline" at June 30, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship said.
In 2011-12, the number of cooks to be accepted as permanent migrants doubled to 4836, an increase that was questioned on labour market grounds by Professor Hawthorne.
Mr Bowen's spokeswoman said 43 per cent of these cooks were from India. Students from India were prominent in the 2004-08 boom in cookery courses.
Visas under a sponsorship scheme aimed at recruiting staff for employers in regional areas, including the city of Perth, grew 48 per cent in 2011-12.
This was likely to include Indian cookery graduates, according to Sydney migration and education agent Jonathan Granger.
"People stuck in that backlog (for independent skilled migration) have . . . sought other (visa) alternatives," he said.
In stark contrast to cooks, the number of accountants taken in as permanent migrants in 2011-12 fell by half to 6914.
Mr Granger said this probably reflected the emphasis on higher levels of English proficiency in the new skilled migration system.
Professor Hawthorne said skilled migration, dominated not long ago by ex-students in the independent visa category, had been "privatised" with the new emphasis on employer sponsorship.
And the permanent migration figures gave "only half the labour migration picture" because of today's government preference for temporary workers.
"Last year, Australia admitted an additional 131,000 people in the 457 (visa) temporary worker category, compared to around 34,000 temporary sponsored migrants seven years back," she said.
"Temporary migration is now dominant in select fields - (it is) the pathway, for instance, of four-fifths of recent medical migrants."
Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian
In 2011-12, permanent migration from India reached 29,018 - 15.7 per cent of the total program, according to figures released yesterday by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen.
"The scale of recent Indian migration is striking," said the University of Melbourne's Lesleyanne Hawthorne, who studies migration and workforce needs.
"We can assume large numbers were former international students who had qualified onshore."
In 2010-11, China was Australia's No 1 source of permanent migrants with 29,547 visas. The year before it was Britain, with 25,738 migrants. Britain had held the top position right back to 1996-97, when current records began, Mr Bowen's spokeswoman said.
However, India and China grew strongly as source countries last decade, partly in step with the international student business.
A decade ago, loose government policy led to an explosion in courses such as accounting, cookery and hairdressing that would give students skilled migration visas. Job outcomes were poor, with weak English a problem.
New rules mean that in future it will be harder for non-native speakers of English to qualify as skilled migrants but many thousands of ex-students are still in the queue for permanent residence.
Amitabh Mattoo, director of the Melbourne-based Australia-India Institute, welcomed yesterday's migration figures, saying India and Australia had much in common as "democratic, English-speaking, federal" countries.
He predicted that India, with 500 million people under 25, would continue to be a source of skilled migration.
"While most of the rest of the world is ageing, India will remain young for the next 20-25 years," Professor Mattoo said.
In the latest figures, a quarter of Indian migrants were approved in visa categories associated with ex-students and family members already in Australia.
In the skilled stream of the migration program, there were still 143,000 people "in the pipeline" at June 30, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship said.
In 2011-12, the number of cooks to be accepted as permanent migrants doubled to 4836, an increase that was questioned on labour market grounds by Professor Hawthorne.
Mr Bowen's spokeswoman said 43 per cent of these cooks were from India. Students from India were prominent in the 2004-08 boom in cookery courses.
Visas under a sponsorship scheme aimed at recruiting staff for employers in regional areas, including the city of Perth, grew 48 per cent in 2011-12.
This was likely to include Indian cookery graduates, according to Sydney migration and education agent Jonathan Granger.
"People stuck in that backlog (for independent skilled migration) have . . . sought other (visa) alternatives," he said.
In stark contrast to cooks, the number of accountants taken in as permanent migrants in 2011-12 fell by half to 6914.
Mr Granger said this probably reflected the emphasis on higher levels of English proficiency in the new skilled migration system.
Professor Hawthorne said skilled migration, dominated not long ago by ex-students in the independent visa category, had been "privatised" with the new emphasis on employer sponsorship.
And the permanent migration figures gave "only half the labour migration picture" because of today's government preference for temporary workers.
"Last year, Australia admitted an additional 131,000 people in the 457 (visa) temporary worker category, compared to around 34,000 temporary sponsored migrants seven years back," she said.
"Temporary migration is now dominant in select fields - (it is) the pathway, for instance, of four-fifths of recent medical migrants."
Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian
