Receiving, accommodation and education of children with immigrant background is one of the challenging issues in almost all the metropolitan areas in many countries. In our study we are exploring the impact of demographic changes on political agendas, legal frames, educational approaches, research findings and student achievement in the field of education of linguistic minorities in Los Angeles, USA and Oslo, Norway. Although there are significant historical and socio economical differences between Los Angeles and Oslo, many of the educational challenges facing the educational policy makers and the linguistic minority students are quite similar.