ABSTRACT
Government policy on immigration to Britain in the post-war years has changed from laissez-faire to the strict and often selective control of certain immigrant groups. It is widely accepted that multicultural education faces a variety of problems including those presented by multilingualism, cultural differences between various groups and between pupils and teachers, adverse social pressures from the declining urban environments in which many ethnic minorities are forced to live, poor interethnic relationships in the school and the impact of widespread racial discrimination upon pupils in multiracial schools. These problems of adjustment can only be understood by reference to social and cultural backgrounds. The problem of identity, particularly evident in young Asians, is now of increasing concern to educationists and social workers in Britain. The most difficult problem for black and Asian children seems to be their identity development. The relationship between prejudice and self-esteem in ethnic minority groups in British schools is more complex.
