Budawang

I find it a little strange that the UK is still the biggest source country for migrants to Australia. As has been pointed out, the culture is actually quite different, it's about as far (and expensive) to get to as anywhere, and the material standard of living is broadly similar. Surely, there must be a lot more Indians wanting to come down here. Given Indians have good English language skills and there are millions of them with that are well educated, and Australia no longer has a discriminatory immigration policy, why are there still more British people coming here? Is the power of day time soaps that great?

Buttockup

They would work harder for less money too, no doubt.

Like my local sushi bar, there's definitely something fishy going on.

worzel

UK isn't number one. New Zealand is.

Bazza Boy

Because Britain is the softest welfare state in the world.

wanderingwombat

[QUOTE=Budawang;6390340]I Surely, there must be a lot more Indians wanting to come down here. Given Indians have good English language skills and there are millions of them with that are well educated, and Australia no longer has a discriminatory immigration policy, why are there still more British people coming here? QUOTE]

Their call centre training in command of the Oztralian language will pay off for them.

Just wait till they turn up at your front door at dinner time. You wont be able to hang up on them then.

WW

ukecadet

I read some stats on the last intake and the numbers of Indians were on a par with UK intake.It had'nt been previously.India has been flavor of the month lately.

Vash the Stampede

The two figures are reasonably close; Britain's Indian population that much larger than Australia's.

Top 5 countries of birth for immigants to Australia:
Source.

IvanM

What about current annual rates of migration? My innacurate anecdotal evidence of observations at DIMIA offices and doctors at hospitals indicates Indians are the current major wave. I'm just too tired to do the googling for something accurate.

Vegemite

I´ve put in bold the answer to your question.

Vash the Stampede

Can't help you there, but I believe Australia's looking at around 130-300k p.a.

Don't quote me on that.

Vash the Stampede

Here we go; some figures for Australian immigration covering the year 2005-2006:
Source.

So that's a total of 458.3 hundred thousand immigrants in one year, with nearly a third of them remaining as permanent settlers and the rest staying on as long term residents.

Budawang

There's been a big increase in the immigration intake for 2008/2009 to 190,000. There will also be a lot more temporary (e.g. subclass 457) people coming to these shores. Quite a few of these temporary people will end up staying I suppose.

Vash the Stampede

Yep, it's all good.

ossigeno

UK has a long history of migration from India, it's going to be the natural choice for many expats with existing family connections.

I think there has been a big increase in Indian migrants to Australia over the last 4 years.

Have a chat with your next taxi driver. Chances are, if he is from the sub-continent, he will be studying accounting or IT.

Take a look at the diversity of many TAFE courses leading to skills in demand occupations (cookery, hairdressing, etc). These courses are a sure route to PR.

Grayling

The man who found my fishing rods at Brisbane airport was an Indian and his colleague was East Asian.

Just walking around Toowong and Indooripilly shopping malls you will see several different nationalitiesand creeds, including muslims, often wearing their traditional dress.

It is easy to imagine that most migrants are from the UK but that is simply not the case.

The government have stated a wish to increase migration from the Indian sub continent.

G