Segregation on racial grounds in education, employment, housing, before the law or in public services, may be a matter of government policy (South Africa) or of custom and general practice. Racial segregation preserves racial conflict, prejudices and discrimination, lack of integration, lack of social mobility, and inequalities.
The phenomenon of racial segregation has appeared in all parts of the world where there are bi-racial communities, except where racial amalgamation has occurred on a large scale, as in Hawaii and Brazil. The problem of racial segregation is most acute in South Africa.