ABSTRACT
Into the new millennium, the large institutions of public service are faced with urgent demands to address more effectively and sensitively the needs of minority ethnic groups within contemporary multicultural society. Among other contextual factors, this is set against a backdrop of the MacPherson Report into the handling by the Metropolitan Police of the Stephen Lawrence investigation (Home Office, 1999) and recent media sensationalism surrounding the issue of asylum seekers. The MacPherson recommendation that all public services must tackle the thorny issue of institutionalised racism rests uncomfortably against the racialised government rhetoric and attendant public furore over incoming refugees. Both of these issues collide in the practice of healthcare professionals attempting to provide services to diverse ethnic groups, including émigré victims of political and economic oppression, and working in a system which has typically striven to solve recruitment crises by poaching the workforce of developing nations.
