First, a short historical summary shows the difficulties experienced by those who came to Canada before the Second World War, and who were victims of legal discrimination. Immigration laws became more lenient after the end of the war, then during the 1960s the racial bias in immigration was removed. The need for immigrants, in view of the well below-replacement fertility of the national population, is examined. The study was based on theme interview material on the life course of the migrants. The results indicate that interaction with other persons is the forum which gives people's life courses their experiential content.
Social networks play a key role in the various phases of migration and return migration.
They provide background sources of social support and aid, but also have a restrictive effect on an individual's potential opportunities. In this paper, the adjustment of status aspect of legal immigration is analyzed by means of a model of indirect professional migration estimated for three time periods. The changing composition of immigrants, as well as major fluctuations in both direct and indirect immigration, are shown to be influenced by changes in immigration laws and regulations. Various factors of their migration are analyzed, such as their migration story, their work experience, organization of the family unit and the family budget, individual and family subsistence strategies, and levels of integration into national society. The results of the study illustrate varying behaviour patterns in the family unit before and after migration and allow conclusions to be drawn about the impact of migration on the migrating family, thus shedding new light on aspects barely touched upon in literature on the subject.