The recently released figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggest that Indians have been flooding the Aussie continent. Between 1996 and 2006, 70,000 Indians have migrated to Australia. Chinese are one-up on the Indians though with their migration moving at a faster pace. Numbers of Chinese immigrants to Australia show 96000 people immigrating to Australia from 1996 to 2006.

Data from the ABS also shows that 4.4 million people in Australia were born overseas. The 2006 census shows that up to 47 percent were Europeans and half of these were from the United Kingdom. Up to 27 percent were Asians and 5 percent Chinese. Australia has witnessed a major increase of Asian immigrates from 1996 to 2006 with a 13 percent increase.

However the Australian migration program is working on having the right people from different countries to immigrate to Australia. The census suggests that most of the people who came to Australia in 2006 were young and were students, most of them aged between 20 to 39.

Before 1973, the former British Colony had a ‘White Australia policy’ and immigraton was restricted to people from European countries and the UK. Things changed after that, slowly. Currently, United Kingdom is still the most common country of origin, with 24% of foreign-born residents (92,000) arriving from there between 1996 and 2006, census data suggested.

However six out of the 10 places from where people immigrate to Australia are Asian countries, with Indian and Chinese immigrants forming a substantial chunk of the immigrant population.

Other countries, from where people have migrating to Australia lately in large numbers, are Malaysia, Philippines and South Korea.

Australian apparatchiks are considering curtailing the immigration of people from various parts of the world, but any amendments in the immigration policy will not be executed before the 2009-2010 budget.