Up Down Under: Sikh count in Oz grows 75% in 5 yrs
MELBOURNE: It’s official. The population of Sikhs in Australia has grown by 75% in five years, according to the 2016 census data released by the Australian government over this week.
With 1.26 lakh followers, up from 72,000 five years ago, Sikhism is now the fifth largest religion of the country after Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. In the 2006 census, Sikhism was not even among 20 religions recorded in Australia. As compared to the 2006 census that had recorded just about 26,000 Sikhs, there has been a fivefold rise in the community’s numbers in a decade.
The migration of Sikhs dates back to 150 years, but the past decade has seen a massive surge of student migration rather than skilled migration, from Punjab.
The rush Down Under on student visa is seen as passport to permanent residency. Lack of employment opportunities in India and the lure of better lifestyle are the driving factors.
Though the latest census shows the Sikhs forming 0.5% of Australia’s 2.4 crore population, a sizeable number of them may still not be permanent citizens.
The last census of 2011 shows that the largest component of Sikhs was living on rent because they didn’t own a home and a majority represented the newly arrived student community.
Australian immigration law has toughened up considerably since 2009. Skill lists, visa rules, and permanent residency requirements have changed rapidly. Despite that, the huge influx of new Sikh and Punjabi-speaking arrivals has continued in a steep upward trajectory in the last five years, with Victoria emerging as the destination of choice for them.
Victoria, with Melbourne as capital, is home to 52,762 Sikhs, followed by New South Wales (31,737), Queensland (17,433), Western Australia (11,897), South Australia (8,808) and Canberra (2,142). Northern Territory and Tasmania have a smaller population of under 700 Sikhs each.
HINDUS GROW TOO
Hinduism, another religion with its roots in India, has grown three-fold since the 2006 census which recorded 1.48 lakh Hindus in Australia. The latest census data has recorded 4.4 lakh Hindus – a little less than 2% of the country’s population.