Book excerpt: New professional immigrants, who are accepted to Canada explicitly because they have desirable skills and professional training, are often unable to find employment or are forced to accept employment below their skill level. This study was part of a larger Canada Research Chair project exploring the career experiences of new professional immigrants to Canada. Using a grounded theory approach, this current study examined the role of the fundamental psychological needs posited by Self Determination Theory (SDT), namely, autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and their influence on immigrants' vocational motivation. Results indicated that when circumstances thwarted the satisfaction of these needs, immigrants experienced greater difficulty adapting to their work-life in Canada. However, immigrants also were able to find creative and self-determined ways of at least partially fulfilling these fundamental needs. These results have theoretical implications for career psychology, and practical implications for helping professional immigrants successfully adapt to the challenges they face.