Critical Social Policy, Ahead of Print.
There is an assumption in UK policy-making that there is a problem with the integration of migrant communities. This has led to political and media attention that suggests a major societal issue. This article rejects that claim but not by showing that migrants are integrated, but by changing the analytical gaze. It begins with the premise that the least integrated group in British society is not those at whom political attention is aimed. Rather than migrant communities, it is elites that live largely separate lives, and their separation is not one resulting from discrimination and/or lack of material resources, but is one actively pursued across multiple domains and transmitted inter-generationally. Using UK Government refugee integration strategies as the framework, the article examines what we know about elite integration across a multitude of domains and shows that elites live largely self-segregated lives.