Ethnic Minorities in Britain: The Educational Performance of Pakistani Muslims Manami HAMASHITA The origins on the multi-racial and multi-cultural society that we see existing in Britain today can be traced back to the period of British imperialism. In the postwar period migrants from countries in the New Commonwealth were able to migrate to Britain without any restrictions in accordance with the British Nationality Act of 1948. The influx of migrants from these countries including the West Indies, India, Pakistan bringing with them their culture and customs had a profound effect, and British society was forced to change rapidly as a result. In general, ethnic minority issues are often considered as a matter of ‘assimilation’ into the host society or with the concept of ‘multiculturalism’. In either case education for ethnic minorities plays an important role. For this reason I would like to focus on the educational performance of ethnic minorities, in particular the performance of those of Pakistani origin. It was in schools in the 1970s that the dispute started over the lower educational achievement of ethnic minorities, especially Pakistani and Bangladesh, compared to that of White students. Indeed there seems to be a general assumption that Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic groups are comparatively less qualified. If this is the case what are the possible causes for this situation? The purpose of this paper is to consider why Pakistani Muslims are assumed to be comparatively less qualified than other ethnic groups and then explore the actual educational achievements of Pakistani Muslims.