Indian diaspora is a significant factor in the socio-economic development of many countries. Indian diaspora in Australia is no different.
Australia has released a first-of-its-kind report titled “Australia’s Indian Diaspora: A National Asset – Mapping the Community’s Reach into the Australia-India Economic Relationship”.
This report aims to better understand the Indian diaspora’s reach into the Australia-India economic relationship. This intensive study of Indian migrants provides profound and vivid insights into the over 721,000-strong community, Australia’s second-largest group of overseas-born residents.
“Australia and India benefit from a long-standing relationship, with deep people-to-people links. As India celebrates its 75th anniversary of independence in 2022, a generation of skilled migrants, professionals and students make the Indian diaspora Australia’s fastest-growing large diaspora,” said the Ministry of Foreign affairs and Trade.
According to the Foreign Affairs and Trade department, the Indian diaspora communities are active across all aspects of Australian life, including in business, politics, the judiciary, government, civil society, academia, science, the arts and sport.
The Key Findings of report:
• Reflecting its energy and aspiration, Australia’s Indian-born population is on average younger, has higher educational attainment and earns greater income than the general population. It is Australia’s second-largest tax-paying diaspora.
• The geographic distribution of the Indian diaspora broadly reflects Australian demographics, with around 70 per cent located in Victoria and New South Wales.
• The Indian diaspora is represented disproportionately in a number of high-skill occupations, including in technology-enabled areas with skills shortage and export potential.
• The Indian diaspora is well represented in the Australian business community. Based on a 2021 snapshot of company data, people of Indian heritage are employed as directors and managers in at least 996 Australian organisations. Within those organisations, there are an estimated 2,840 directors and managers of Indian heritage out of a total of over 20,730 working in Australia. This corresponds to over 13 per cent of the total, while the diaspora represents approximately 3 per cent of the Australian population overall. Of the directors and managers of Indian heritage, 12.5 per cent are women, as compared to 9.3 per cent of the total.
• Among the cohort of 2,840 directors and managers of Indian heritage, this report finds a subset of 964 have strong potential to influence trade and investment with India. This subset’s representation is high in several sectors of significance to the relationship with India, including health, tourism, ICT and resources, across companies representing over $250 billion in annual turnover. However, it is proportionally lower in the education and agribusiness sectors, despite their importance to the relationship.
• Across Australia, the representation of people of Indian heritage in senior academic roles at lecturer level and above in universities is increasing, having grown from 1.75 per cent in 2016 to 1.92 per cent in 2020.
• A growing number of business-focused and professional networks are emerging among the Indian diaspora. These vary widely in their online presence.
