India is now Australia’s No.1 source of migrants. It’s a profound shift, and a positive one

June 1, 2026 — 2:54pm

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For the first time since records began, India has overtaken England as Australia’s largest source of migrants. The margin is roughly 70 people, a number smaller than a typical city apartment block. This is not a blip. It is a structural shift in the story of modern Australia.

A shift this significant deserved a serious national conversation about what it means for Australia economically, strategically, and as a society. That conversation has been largely absent. What has happened instead is something quite different. Last year’s “March for Australia” rallies singled out Indian migrants explicitly.

When Melbourne’s city council proposed a Little India precinct, in a city where Chinatown and Koreatown already thrive, the backlash turned ugly fast. Meanwhile, politicians reached for familiar positions: migration caps, values tests, assimilation requirements, rarely with any clarity on what those words actually mean in practice. Taken together,........

© The Age