Indian migrants are among the top migrant taxpayers in Australia according to the latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Out of 112.3 billion income generated by migrant taxpayers, Indian migrants generated $18 billion in 2016-17, coming a close second to migrants from the United Kingdom who generated $21 billion.
Indian migrants’ contribution to the Australian economy has more than doubled in the span of five years.
ABS figures reveal Indian taxpayers’ contribution grew from $7.9 billion in 2011-12 to $18 billion in 2016-17.
The data also reveals the median employee income for migrant taxpayers was higher than the median employee income of an Australian taxpayer.
ABS Migration and Small Population Insights Director, Jenny Dobak said most of this migrant income ($102 billion, or 91 per cent) was earned by employees.
“For example, the data shows the median employee income of all migrant taxpayers in 2016-17 was $49,438, which was slightly higher than the median employee income for all Australian taxpayers ($49,412),” she said.
Skilled migrants, who contributed $81 billion of the $112.3 billion income, reported a higher median employee income compared to family migrant taxpayers and humanitarian migrant taxpayers.
Indian fans react during the second T20 International match between Australia and India at the MCG in Melbourne, Friday, Jan. 29, 2016. Source: AAP Image/David Crosling
Top five migrant taxpayer communities:
Migrants from the five most common countries of birth made up over half of the migrant taxpayers and together generated 54% ($60 billion) of total income:
- 19% United Kingdom ($21 billion)
- 16% India ($18 billion)
- 8.0% China ($9.0 billion)
- 5.7% South Africa ($6.4 billion)
- 5.1% Philippines ($5.7 billion)
Skilled migrant taxpayers reported a median employee income of $59,304 and almost 20 per cent of them were born in India.
Occupations of skilled migrant taxpayers:
The most common occupations of skilled employees were:
- Business and Systems Analysts, and Programmers (5.1% of skilled employees) reporting $5.1 billion in employee income
- Midwifery and Nursing Professionals (5.1% of skilled employees) reporting $4.6 billion in employee income
- Accountants, Auditors and Company Secretaries (4.4% of skilled employees) reporting $3.6 billion in employee income
- Engineering Professionals (3.7% of skilled employees) reporting $4.2 billion in employee income
Highest median employee incomes of skilled migrant taxpayers were for the following more detailed occupations:
- Medical practitioners ($148,357)
- ICT Managers ($117,502)
- Stationary Plant Operators ($106,659)
- Construction, Distribution and Production Managers ($105,501)
(Source: ABS)
Indians are the third-largest migrant group in Australia.
Source: (newzulu.com)
After England and China, India ranks third on the list of residents born overseas according to the ABS, with more than 592,000 Indians living in Australia as of June 2018.
India has been Australia’s biggest source of migrants since 2016.
While 33,310 places of 162,417 permanent places in 2017-18 were granted to Indian citizens, 38,854 visas of 183,608 places went to Indian citizens in 2016-17.
The number of Indian students studying in Australia too ascended to a seven-year high in 2018. According to November 2017 , close to 70,000 students were studying in Australian universities and colleges.
The 2016 Census revealed that along with population, Indian languages too had grown in Australia.
Hindi came out as the top Indian language spoken at home in Australia with 159,652 speakers, with Punjabi a close second at 132,496.
The other languages which have seen a big jump are Tamil (73,161), Bengali (54,566), Malayalam (53,206), Gujarati (52,888), Telugu (34,435), Marathi (13,055) and Kannada (9701).
