One in four of Australia’s 22 million people were born overseas; 46 per cent have at least one parent who was born overseas; and nearly 20 per cent of Australians speak a language other than English at home. In 2013, overseas migration represented 60 per cent of Australia’s population growth in the year. People born in the United Kingdom continue to be the largest group of overseas-born residents (5.3 per cent), followed by New Zealand (2.6 per cent), China (1.8 per cent), India (1.6 per cent) and Vietnam (0.9 per cent).
In 2013-14, 163017 people from more than 190 countries were approved to become Australian citizens. Migrants make an enormous contribution to Australia’s economy and provide an estimated fiscal benefit of over 10 billion dollars in their first ten years of settlement. In 2010-11, international education activity contributed $16.3 billion to the Australian economy.
Being a multicultural country, Australia has migrations from all over the world, which makes it the home to the world’s oldest continuous cultures. According to the statistics, nearly a half of the Australian population were born overseas or have a foreign-born parent. In addition, migrants’ contributions to Australia’s economy are enormous as estimation shows over 10 billion dollars of fiscal benefit was provided in their first 10 years of settlement.
