Publication of the government’s strategy on integration for new communities poses questions about the nature of ‘Englishness’ and how to do what amounts to top-down integration work. This article looks back to the pioneering refugee youth work study of Norton and Cohen and at the critical questions that identity work poses for young refugees and what kind of youth work practice we need to develop in the future. In order to overcome isolation and enclavisation of communities, it argues we need to support integration strategies from below, from NGOs but importantly from the lived experience of the young people themselves and their participation in project design and politics
