Indians supplant Chinese to become largest migrant group in Australia

Indians moving to Australia were the largest overseas migrant cohort in the past decade and have supplanted China as the second-biggest diaspora living Down Under, government data show.
 

From 2011 to 2021, Indian-born migrants rose by 373,000, followed by 208,000 from China and 118,000 from the Philippines, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed Tuesday. As a result, Indians now account for 2.8% of the population, compared with China’s 2.3%, while Britons lead with 3.8%.

Yet reflecting the distortions of the pandemic, the proportion of Australia’s population who are overseas-born actually edged down to 29.1% in 2021 from 29.8% a year earlier. That was due to the shuttering of the borders, meaning almost no new arrivals and few Australian departures in the period.

Just under half of all Australians were either born overseas or had a parent who was, according to the most recent data from 2016. Immigration played a central role in Australia avoiding recession for 28 years until Covid-19 finally sent the economy into reverse. 

China’s fall from second to third place as a source of immigrants came as ties between Australia and its top trading partner were deteriorating.

They went into freefall in 2020 as Prime Minister Scott Morrison led calls for an independent probe into the origins of the coronavirus that first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Beijing, infuriated, responded with a volley of punitive trade actions that have hit commodities from coal to barley, lobsters and wine.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told Bloomberg in an interview last month that Australia will look to reduce its dependence on China in the face of “economic coercion” from Beijing. India’s swelling population -- set to overtake China’s in 2027 -- suggests ongoing opportunities to diversify the trade portfolio.

FTA Deal

Australia recently signed a free trade agreement with India in a bid to boost trade -- currently dominated by coal -- from a modest A$24.3 billion in 2020. 

Arindam Chakraborty at ANZ Banking Group Ltd.  said the expansion of India’s diaspora is likely to be a “significant” source of human capital for Australia in the years to come, and the deal may prove lucrative for energy shipments.

“Supportive factors include expectations of India’s rapid growth over the next decade, including an increase in its urbanization rate, which stands at less than 40%,” he said. “This means, as the economy grows, power demand will rise.”

He also sees significant scope for expansion of India’s IT service exports to Australia.