Energy Justice and Citizenship: Refugee and Asylum Seeker Communities' Experiences of Energy Poverty and Infrastructural Exclusion in the UK

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The aim of this research is to advance interdisciplinary knowledge on the socio-technical underpinnings of energy poverty and infrastructural exclusion among refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. This PhD project addresses a critical gap in understanding where there has been no prior systematic research in this context, by collaborating with multiple stakeholders, including high-level policymakers such as Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Department for Transport (DfT), Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Citizens Advice and National Energy Action (NEA) to ensure permeability of the research into policy and practice. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disproportionately impacted ethnic minority communities and pushed the number of people in the UK living in poverty to over 15 million (Butler, 2020), the number of Afghan refugees entering the UK following the Taliban takeover of the country, as well as in anticipation of the UK energy price hike in the winter of 2021, which could see 500,000 more people unable to heat their homes (End Fuel Poverty Coalition, 2021), understanding why and how refugee and broader ethnic minority communities are differentially affected by energy poverty is crucial. Exposing and developing research on these needs and contexts that are currently critically underrepresented in the UK literature and policy on energy poverty, will feed into developing better, fairer and more inclusive policy and regulation with regards to energy, housing and decarbonisation efforts (Blakelock, 2021).