Australia
The migration of Indians to Australia for permanent residentship has shot up 50 per cent in the last three years and by almost 60-70 per cent from the recession years of 2008-09.
Bangalore constitutes around 23 per cent of this migration with a good number of students taking up work after study and going on to get permanent residency in Australia.Between 2008-09, 4,746 people got permanent residentship, which fell sharply to 3,878 in 2009-10. The recession hit migration plans very sharply.
Thereafter, we have a sharp rise in 2010-11 when 7,938 Indian citizens were granted residency.
That shot up to 10,321 in 2011-12 and a higher 14,743 in 2012-13. Trends over a seven year period show that residency for Indians went up from 5,289 in 2006-07 to 14,743 in 2012-13.
Australian officials do point out that the students coming from Bangalore and other cities too are very open and usually pick cities by the choice of course than by destination within Australia. These students spend a lot of time researching and pick an university that offers them the best course based on their future career plans.
The courses that most Bangaloreans tend to pick are business, IT, engineering, biotechnology and communications/media. This choice is very similar to the choices students make in the United States. Australia does not have a ‘green card’, like the US has, but offers permanent residency to eligible overseas nationals through its migration programme.
Australia and New Zealand sector will take time to be as attractive as the US and the UK. This is because historically, Indians have been travelling to the US and the UK more and from as far back as the 1880’s when Indians undertook long travels. An early student was the iconic Dr B R Ambedkar who did his law at Columbia University. But sustained migration began in the 1950s and 1960s.
Iconic two decades
These two decades are iconic in the India migration story – plenty of them are now seasoned US citizens doing brisk business of whatever they do – running a vegetable/fruit store, running a cab, being a professor or a store manager or even a company head.
The migrants of the 1960s are now stars telling all the newcomers how to live life in America and what to do to be an American citizen. If this history has to work in Australia, migration trends will be the key.
Prashanth G N
Oct 2, 2014
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/433977/permanent-migration-australia-doubles-3.html