Melbourne: Unfazed by the attacks on Indian students Down Under, over 20,000 Indians have migrated under Australia's permanent skilled visa category beating Chinese who stood at over 13,000 during 2008-09.

According to official figures released today, overseas workers who were sponsored by employers comprised 33% of the 2008-09 skill stream compared to 22% in 2007-08 and 17% in 2006-07.

Across all permanent skilled visa categories, top three occupations for successful applicants were accountancy (6,238), computing professionals (3,879) and registered nurses (3,355) and top three nations under the skill stream were the United Kingdom (23,178), India (20,105) and China (13,927).

Minister for immigration and citizenship Chris Evans said that changes introduced in January including the Critical Skills List (CSL) of high value occupations and prioritising employer-sponsored or state/territory-sponsored skilled migration visa grants were having a significant impact.

"Australia's migration programme is better targeting the needs of Australian employers who are still experiencing skill shortages," Evans said.

"A properly targeted migration programme will ensure we have the right sized and appropriately skilled labour force to meet Australia's needs now and into the future as our economy recovers and grows," he said.

Source: DNAIndia