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

这项研究的目的是推进跨学科知识的能源贫困和基础设施排斥难民和寻求庇护者在英国的社会技术基础。这个博士项目解决了理解的关键差距，在这种情况下，没有事先的系统研究，通过与多个利益相关者，包括高层政策制定者，如商业，能源和工业战略部（BEIS），运输部（DfT），大曼彻斯特联合管理局（GMCA），公民咨询和国家能源行动（NEA），以确保研究渗透到政策和实践。在COVID-19大流行之后，少数民族社区受到不成比例的影响，并将英国生活在贫困中的人数推高至1500多万人（巴特勒，2020年），塔利班接管该国后进入英国的阿富汗难民人数，以及预计2021年冬季英国能源价格上涨，可能会达到500人，2000多万人无法取暖（结束燃料贫困联盟，2021年），了解难民和更广泛的少数民族社区为什么以及如何受到能源贫困的不同影响至关重要。暴露和发展对这些需求和背景的研究，目前在英国文献和能源贫困政策中严重不足，将有助于制定更好，更公平，更包容的政策和法规，涉及能源，住房和脱碳努力（布雷克洛克，2021）。

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).