Career counselling for immigrant students in higher education

ABSTRACT

Professional immigrants make up a large portion of immigration to Canada, and many of these individuals pursue retraining in higher education for career transition. This article examines the career challenges faced by immigrant students and looks at their career needs through the lens of Lent, Brown and Hackett’s social cognitive career theory and Krumboltz’s social learning theory. These frameworks highlight the dynamic interactions between the individual and their environment, making them especially suited to addressing the unique needs of immigrant students. This article also discusses theory-backed interventions that can be adopted by career counsellors when dealing with immigrant students.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigrant students
• higher education
• career counselling
• career theories
• counselling interventions

Data availability statement

Data availability is not applicable to this article. This article is entirely based on existing literature that is fully accessible to the public.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Charles P. Chen

Charles P. Chen, PhD, is Professor of Counselling and Clinical Psychology and a Canada Research Chair in Life Career Development at the University of Toronto.

Alison M. D’Cruz

Alison M. D’Cruz, MA, is a graduate trainee in higher education at the University of Toronto.