The Multicultural Centre was founded in 1987 by the municipality of Botkyrka.
The need to tackle new situations, as well as interest in following the cultural processes of interaction and change gave birth to the idea of a foundation of which the mission statement today reads:

“The Multicultural Centre is a forum for research and for exchanging knowledge and experiences on migration as well as social and cultural diversity. We are writing contemporary history not only for future reference but also to better understand the present. The Multicultural Centre strives to incorporate phenomena related to migration into the national heritage. Our guiding principles are that no one should feel forced to deny, suppress or deprecate her own culture or identity to participate in society.”

A pre-requisite of our attempts to enter into the on-going discussion about Botkyrka and Sweden as multi-cultural societies, is that we should be working with research and documentation. The research carried out at the Centre has been broadly concerned with the question of how society has been influenced by migration. It is based on the idea that a "multicultural society" is something more than just "people from different cultures". Immigration affects us all, directly or indirectly. How does Sweden change, given the needs and opportunities created by social and cultural diversity? The centre and its staff has been involved in a number of government investigations and evaluations e.g. of the Metropolitan development programme and of policies of multiculturalism and integration.