The sociopolitical situation in England, such as the question of the crossing of the English Channel by migrants and the issue of nationality, reminds us of Benjamin Zephaniah’s Refugee Boy (2001). The purpose of this study is to investigate the connections between fiction and society on the one hand and the novel as a vivid portrayal, imitation, or representation of contemporary Britain on the other. Using the New Historicism approach, this study analyzed the social integration and the social exclusion of the main character in a British context as a refugee. Benjamin Zephaniah’s Refugee Boy addresses issues that are somehow still in the mainstream, and this strengthens the idea that literature helps to question and understand a given society to a certain extent. Moreover, further studies are needed to establish the relationship and interconnection between literary work and contemporary issues, as other fields of research try to do. Keywords: Asylum seeker, exclusion, inclusion, integration, refugee