This study focuses on teachers in schools with large numbers of new arrival immigrant pupils in a provincial school district in mid-Sweden. Drawing from focus group interviews and examples from the teachers' lessons, we examined the views of the teachers regarding the challenges experienced in responding to the pedagogical needs of new arrival pupils in culturally and linguistically heterogeneous classrooms. The findings reveal the structural and organisational problems at the city council and at the school and classroom levels as the major challenges. These include the pressure to create inclusive and safe classrooms for diverse cultural and linguistic pupils in an atmosphere where there is limited resources and emphasis on standardised assessment and teaching for tests within a prescribed curriculum However, the teachers' pedagogical practices demonstrate attempts at intercultural teaching that build on the pupils cultural and linguistic experiences and compares well with principles of cultural responsive pedagogy.