India continues to be the top source country for new migrants heading to live permanently in Australia, new figures reveal.
The latest data shows that a total of 31,310 Indian migrants arrived to live in Australia in the 12 months to the end of June 2018. This accounted for almost one in five of all migrants who arrived in Oz during that period.
The overall number of immigrants who arrived to live in Australia during the 2017-18 migration year totalled 162,417. This was -13 per cent less the 183,608 that arrived in the 2016-17 migration year.
Indeed, the number of Indians arriving to live in Australia also declined during this period, falling by 20.5 per cent from the 38,854 who arrived last year.
In fact, the numbers of people arriving from the top three source countries all declined in 2017-18. The figures show that 25,145 migrants from China settled in Australia last year (compared to 28,293 a year earlier), while the number arriving from the UK fell to 13,654 from 17,038 a year earlier.
The Australia government recently announced that the migration program target rate will be reduced by 15 per cent for the 2019-20 migration year. It will also place more emphasis on having migrants settle in ‘regional’ areas of the country. For the purpose pf the new regional visas, all of Australia will be defined as ‘regional’ with the exception of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Perth.
Article published 4th April 2019