虽然加拿大华裔来加拿大已有130年的历史,但他们只是在二次世界大战后的最近几十年才获得了公民权。大战之前,加拿大华人在法律上备受排斥,其他加拿大人想当然可以享受到的权利(包括选举权、自由进出这个国家),华人却被拒之门外。法制化的歧视和社会的敌视,限制了华人就业的机会。战前,许多华人主要由于他们在加拿大所处的不利的社会市场条件,以及受有限的资金和教育程度的限制,不得不在华裔的商业部门中谋生,以避免与白人劳工竞争。于是,手工洗衣业,以后是餐馆业,成了华人谋生的主要手段。与此形成对比的是,专业和技术职业,大战前在华人中几乎无人问津(李,1979年,1982年)。由于1947年废除了1923年的华人移民法案和改变战后的移民政策,华人逐渐获准移民到加拿大来。但是,直到1967年加拿大采用点数计分法衡量准否移民入境以后,华人才得以与其他国籍的人享受同样的准则。战后的这些变化,掀起了华人移民加拿大的新浪潮。在这些移民中,有人数众多的专业和技术人员。与此同时,随着一小部分第二代 Although Canadian Chinese have come to Canada for 130 years, they only acquired citizenship in recent decades after World War II. Prior to the war, the Canadian Chinese were legally excluded from the law and the rights of other Canadians, including the right to vote and freedom to enter and leave the country, were taken for granted by the other Chinese. Legalized discrimination and social hostility have limited the opportunities for Chinese to work. Prior to the war, many Chinese had to make their living in the Chinese business sector to avoid competition with whites because of their unfavorable social market conditions in Canada and their limited financial and educational resources. As a result, the hand-washing industry and later the restaurant business have become the major means by which Chinese can make a living. In contrast, almost no one in China paid much attention to professional and technical occupations before World War II (Li 1979, 1982). Due to the abolition of the Chinese immigration act of 1923 in 1947 and the change of the post-war immigration policy, the Chinese are gradually allowed to emigrate to Canada. However, until 1967 Canada adopted the point scoring method to measure the immigration of immigrants, the Chinese could enjoy the same guidelines as those of other nationalities. These changes after the war set off a new wave of Chinese immigrants in Canada. Among these immigrants, there are a large number of professional and technical personnel. At the same time, with a small part of the second generation