Introduction

Our children and grandchildren—our future—are living at a time of rising anti-immigrant and racist social conditions in Europe, the United States, Australia, and other Western countries. In addition, tensions exist over migration between poor “sending” countries and richer “receiving” nations and over several waves of reform and contestations of education policy globally. This is not to say that all socially excluded children and families would readily be labeled as belonging to minority, immigrant, or nondominant cultural backgrounds. Rather, such individuals may not conform to mainstream trends and pressures and are often, though not always, from low-income groups. All of this is taking place in a world that is more connected than ever, while at the same time many parts of the world are splintered along religious, economic, gender, and racial lines, with social exclusion growing, in spite of many years of human rights and multicultural educational research and advocacy.