All children entering Swedish schools encounter a new world with values and traditions that may differ from those of their own home. The fact that this encounter can be disruptive, even a culture clash, is particularly evident in the case of children who themselves or whose parents have immigrated to Sweden. Their own traditions may make them reluctant to let girls go to school, and things like participation in gymnastics, swimming lessons, sex and relationships or even music may be completely unthinkable. Religion may be strongly rooted in the family, with requirements that girls wear veils, boys wear certain headgear, prayers must be said continuously, certain foods are forbidden, etc. What can the public authorities, represented by a municipal school, demand of the child in terms of participation, and what can the child in turn demand in terms of special treatment? What is the exercise of their own - or their parents' - rights and freedoms under the Swedish Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, and what is instead to be regarded as impermissible deviations from the requirements of equal treatment and freedom from discrimination. The problem is exacerbated by the compulsory nature of schooling, to which the growing number of independent schools may be a reaction. In a society increasingly characterized by polyethnicity, these issues must be taken very seriously and there is a great need for research, both legal and interdisciplinary.