Just for whom? Including immigrant and migrant workers of Asian descent in the energy transition dialogue in Alberta, Canada

Abstract

There is agreement amongst activists, politicians, the majority of the public and even industry stakeholders that shifting away from carbon-intensive industries is necessary to get on a path towards mitigating climate change. There is also widespread support for a transition that prioritizes the rights of those who will be vulnerable to these shifts, including resource-dependent and Indigenous communities, workers, and other marginalized groups. However, there is still much debate over what this transition will look like. This research imagines an energy transition that reflects the concerns, values and priorities of Asian immigrant and migrant oil and gas workers. In the introduction, I put forward a brief summary of the concepts of energy justice and energy democracy and how they guided this research project, as well as contextualize the experiences of Asian immigrants as diasporic subjects in Canada in relation to their unique histories of outmigration and discrimination. Based on fifteen semi-structured interviews with immigrant and migrant workers of Asian descent with experience working in both white-collar and blue-collar professions in the oil and gas industry in Alberta, I take two approaches to analyzing the interview data that bring about important insights for the energy transition literature. Firstly, I propose that an intersectional lens applied to dimensions of the matrix of domination such as race, class, gender and age can illustrate the unique, yet interrelated values, priorities and concerns of Asian immigrants and migrants. Secondly, I suggest that looking at underlying systems of oppression, namely white hegemony that uses race-based justifications for valuing some bodies over others, can shed light on worker complicity and point towards opportunities for building solidarity amongst racialized workers and groups in so-called Canada.