Indians are third largest migrant group in Australia

The exponential growth of Indian migrants in Australia makes them the third largest migrant group in the country. A huge number of Indians apply to the country’s migration program every year leading to permanent residency and later citizenship.

The Australian government comes out with its migration program planning levels every year to achieve certain economic and social targets. The migration program is planned every year and for 2018-19, the total number of places was set at 190,000.

The reasons behind encouraging migrants to come and settle in the country include:

• Improve production of the economy and cover the skill shortages in the labour market including those in regional areas
• Help Australians reunite with family members living outside the country
• Provide visas for those in special circumstances

The migration program consists of these two main streams:

• Skill stream-This stream was allocated 108,682 places which made up about 68 per cent in the total number of places in the migration program.
• Family stream- This stream mostly made up of Partner visas was allocated 47,732 places which made up about 32 per cent of the program.

Breakup of the Skill Stream:

Skill stream category	Number of places
Employer sponsored	30,000
Skilled Independent	16,652
Business innovation and investment	6,862
State/Territory Nominated	24,968

 Breakup of the Family stream

Family stream category	Number of places
Partner	39,799
Parent	7,371
Other Family	562

Indians comprise the largest group of migrants and citizens

The target numbers for the migration program in 2018-19 was lower than the targets for previous years. However, India was the largest source of migrants to Australia in this period. Indian migrants are also the top source of Australian citizenship with over 28,000 Indian migrants acquiring citizenship.

India was the top source for citizenship for the sixth year in a row followed by Britain and China. The surge in citizenship applications from Indians is related to the marked rise in the number of persons acquiring permanent residency under the skilled visas stream. In fact, 33,611 places under the permanent migration program went to Indians.