Australia is the new craze with Indian people considering migration nowadays. 2006-07 year marked almost 16,000 Indians seeking permanent residence under the skilled migrant programme to Australia.

This makes them second largest group seeking Australian immigration, after Britons. Partha Mukherjee, a passout from IIT, Kharagpur and IIM, Ahmedabad relocated to Australia three years back, accompanies by his wife under the same programme.

He had everything, wealth, position and power while in Mumbai. But he chooses to immigrate to Sydney because of the enhanced quality life that the country offers. This allows him to strike the right balance between his family life and work. Mukherjee, at present is a lecturer for international business at a university and is also an engineering consultant.

This Indian craze for Australia immigration is followed by China, South Africa and Malaysia. Despite constant economic growth from the past one decade, Australia’s demand for skilled workers is still on the rise, as a lot of ageing workforce is on the verge of retirement now.

Professional Engineers and Engineering managers, Tradespersons, IT and Computing professionals, registered nurses and accounting professionals are in great demand in Australia under the skilled migrant category.

The in-demand list of Australian occupations is given in the MODL or Migration Occupations in the Demand List. This list is amended frequently on the basis of shortage of skilled workers in the Australian economy. Total of 38 occupations are mentioned in this list, on the basis of which immigrants are awarded certain extra points in their points system. Priority processing is another benefit enjoyed by immigrants, if their nominated occupation appears in this list.

Besides Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Denmark are some destinations for which people are seeking immigration nowadays.