Press Release Summary = AMIT Sinha has never been to Australia and knows no one there, but still says he can\'t wait to migrate. A love of Australian cricket in part explains the passion of the former member of India\'s junior cricket team.
Press Release Body = AMIT Sinha has never been to Australia and knows no one there, but still says he can\'t wait to migrate. A love of Australian cricket in part explains the passion of the former member of India\'s junior cricket team.
\"I\'m infatuated with the country,\" he said. \"I think it would be a great place to work and live.\"
The 29-year-old travelled from Scotland, where he studies hospitality, to attend the first Australian Government Skills Expo held in London.
Over three days, 4000 prospective migrants will come to Australia House, meet prospective employers and discuss visa prospects with federal and state governments.
The expo, to be followed by similar events in Chennai (formerly Madras), Amsterdam and Berlin, is part of the Government\'s plan to attract an extra 20,000 skilled migrants this financial year.
The increase, announced in March, will bring the skilled quota to 97,000 - about two-thirds of an anticipated intake of 140,000 migrants and 13,000 refugees in 2005-06. The migrant intake will be the highest since the late 1960s.
About 50 employers - including hospitals, accountants, big miners such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, and Sydney hairdressers Mattana Coiffure - are represented at the expo.
A resources boom is driving much of the demand, and mining and construction firms will pay big salaries to people prepared to move to the outback. Some state governments will also sponsor migrants who are willing to work in remote areas.
Bhavin and Ami Gandhi, however, want to move to Melbourne - for the weather. After spending two years in London, \"I just think the weather in Australia is fantastic and that\'s more than enough for us,\" said Ms Gandhi, who works as a library assistant while her husband is a civil engineer.
The couple have already received their Australian visas and were at the expo to meet employers. They come from Mumbai and point out that Australia is only 10 hours from their old home. \"It will be a better lifestyle for us and better prospects for our daughter (Khushi, 3),\" Ms Gandhi said.
The British media have shown plenty of interest in the expo and Australia\'s skilled migration drive, often comparing it to the \"10-pound Pom\" schemes that lured up to a million British migrants after World War II.
But David Watt, counsellor (immigration) at the Australian high commission, said the comparison was off the mark. \"The 10-pound Pom was in the bad old days of White Australia\" when the country expressly wanted British migrants, Mr Watt said. He said that after British migrants, Indians and Chinese were the largest groups in the skilled migrant category.
The Tampa episode and detention centres have given Australia a reputation as an anti-migration country, especially in Britain, but Mr Watt believes Australia and Canada are \"way ahead of the game\" not only in chasing skilled migrants but in ensuring they become citizens rather than merely guest workers. He thinks the expo is the first of its kind in the world.
Mark Gamble\'s cousins moved to Brisbane as \"10-pound Poms\" after the war. But Mr Gamble, a 40-year old engineer from near Birmingham, thinks his experience will be different.
For one, he won\'t be housed in military barracks while he and his wife Beverly, wait for accommodation when they move to Brisbane this year. They also have their visas and \"we\'ve booked our flights - November 7\", Mr Gamble said. \"The house is sold. We\'re ready to go.\"
Source: The Age, September 29, 2005
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