The surge of Indian and Chinese migrants over the last ten years has driven the growth rate of overseas born Australians to a 120 year high.
Not since the gold rush of 1880s has Australia seen such high migration rates. The difference however is that Asian countries now figure prominently in this surge according to a media release by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
People born overseas now make-up 28 per cent of the resident population of Australia, sates the release. That equals to about 6.6 million people, numbers not seen in 120 years or since the tail end of the gold rush, said ABS spokesperson Denise Carlton in the media release.
“Overseas migration has been a large contributor to the total Australian population growth for several years: it has consistently been the main driver since 2005-06, contributing more than 50 per cent of population growth in Australia,” Ms Carlton said.
“While the largest migrant groups were people born in the UK and New Zealand, with a total of over 1.8 million Australian residents being born in those two countries, the next two most common birthplaces were from the Asian region.” These were China and India, with about 450,000 and 400,000 respectively.
...