Chinese professional immigrants make up the 2nd largest visible minority group in Canada. Their successful resettlement in the host country is inextricably tied to the prosperity and success of the general Canadian society that depends heavily on its immigration practice for the country's development and growth. However, there is a dearth of literature and research on this particular population, especially in the areas of career development and vocational psychology based on the unique cultural context of Canada. To address the pivotal career needs of Chinese professional immigrants, this article identifies and discusses 6 prominent career-related barriers they face in the resettlement process: migration-related stressors; language proficiency; cultural nuances and knowledge; discrimination and prejudice; foreignearned experiences, education, and credentials not recognized; and family separation and fragmentation. Strategies to tackle these career development barriers are proposed from a life-career integrated perspective, alongside ideas and strategies for effective career interventions.

The authors propose a constructivist theory of career human agency to integrate and update the existing career theoretical models to better address the current postmodern zeitgeist. The career human agency theory (CHAT) represents a metatheory of career psychology guided by the principles of Bandura’s human agency framework and informs career development practice and counseling interventions. CHAT promotes the enactment of personal, proxy, and collective agency in the face of uncertainty and adversity. This article describes 4 pillar principles of career agency and provides concrete examples for career counseling application.

This article elaborates the emerging career human agency theory and its applicability to career psychology practice. Using Bandura’s human agency theory as a foundation, career human agency theory is a meta-theory that integrates key tenets from major theories in vocational and career psychology. It presents an endeavour of theoretical integration to conceive and understand career issues and vocational behaviours. The article provides a brief overview of career human agency theory, indicating its postmodern constructivist and constructionist worldview in conceptualizing life-career phenomena, while integrating life and career experiences into a dynamic and coherent whole. To this end, the four pillar theoretical principles and constructs of career human agency theory are reviewed, namely, career intentionality, career forethought, career self-reactiveness, and career self-reflectiveness. Furthermore, the article considers and explains the usefulness of the four constructs as they are applied to professional helping and self-helping processes that improve and enhance the vocational wellness of individuals, connecting career human agency theory to practice. In doing so, the article concludes with a case study illustration to demonstrate how these career human agency theory constructs and their related tenets and ideas can inform and guide career development practice and career counselling interventions, utilizing and strengthening agentic functioning in individuals’ worklife wellbeing.