Why study immigrant’s household sustainability?

Towards an more inclusive definition of sustainability consumption

Migration emerges in environmental research primarily because of scarcity and climate change to discuss the plight of climate refugees, but consideration of migrants and immigrants as conscious subjects with specific agency that matters for the environment is almost absent. Several scholars argue about the “disruptive” potential of literature that “considers how migrants” environmental values, knowledge and behaviours change after migration, or not – as well as migrants” ability to change environmental thinking and practice in their new home countries. Disrupting prevalent ideas and bridging knowledge gaps about the relationship between sustainability and South-North migration are essential steps considering the increased policy and research interest in changing household practices. Aside from the concept of disruption, research on immigrant experiences and understandings has the potential to pilot the search for better sustainability strategies and alternatives toward higher socio-cultural inclusivity. Although the difficulties for Westerners in providing up a high-consumption lifestyle are well documented, policymakers and researchers have not considered how to process immigrants’ environmental knowledge and practices for them to contribute positively to society in their new cities. Such studies would help to develop a more inclusive definition of sustainable consumption while also confirming the legitimacy of community knowledge that has been either neglected or essentialized. As Anantharaman (2018) criticizes in her study: “for the past two decades of sustainable consumption research, we have readily celebrated the sustainability of the privileged while ignoring the conditions of oppression that make it possible”. Sustainable consumption research has the potential to go beyond this paradigm and investigate alternative logics, behaviours, and organizations that operate outside of the Western/White spaces of mainstream sustainability.

The role of immigrants
According to Gifford and Nilsson’s (2014) research, new migrants have higher levels of environmental concern than non-migrants, and “in general, citizens of developing countries seem to have as much, if not more, environmental concern than those in developed countries (e.g., Germany, the United States)”. However, several studies reveal that once individuals arrive in a new country in the North Globe, they are constrained to engage in household sustainable activities for two main reasons: economic/structural and social limitations.

Economic/structural limitations
Research of immigrant households suggests that structural/material constraints, rather than social barriers are the main impediment to implementing sustainable practices in the host nation. MacGregor et al. (2019) conducted a mixed-methods study on the sustainability practices of Somali households in Manchester (Moss Side), in which many of them reported not buying organic or environmentally friendly products since immigrating to the UK, primarily due to the high cost, despite routinely growing fruits and vegetables and purchasing organic food in Somalia. For most of them, organic food was the sole option in Somalia. They mentioned physical infrastructural barriers, such as a lack of space to grow a vegetable garden, degradation of the local environment, and a scarcity of organic shops in their area, as the primary reasons for abandoning these practices. McLain et al. (2014) observed that “people of diverse ethnicity forage in urban and peri-urban landscapes. In some cases, it appears that the ethnicity and/or place of origin of the gatherers influence what produce is gathered”. Chinese immigrants to the United States look for ginkgo nuts, African Americans for pokeweed shoots and sweetgrass for basketry, Native Americans for evergreen huckleberries and nettle leaves, and Europeans for morels and greens.
Another important aspect in household sustainable practices is the availability of resources such as water and energy. According to some research, low-income Somali immigrants in the United Kingdom frequently experience poor housing conditions with moisture issues and ineffective heating systems, which leads to increased energy consumption. Even with such significant contextual changes, Somali immigrant in Manchester (MacGregor et al., 2019) continuing to practice resource conservation, which is remarkable given Somalia’s resource scarcity, which ranges from regular power outages and water rationing to severe droughts. In terms of natural environment pleasure practices, Somali immigrants have different approach to engage with their local environment in Moss Side compared to previous locations they have lived. Somalia is remembered as a location with lots of sunshine, clean air, and little pollutants; in contrast, Moss Side (Manchester) is perceived with a significant frequency of environmental concerns. Overgrown gardens or waste ground, foul air, dog waste, and a lack of green space are considered as “a great problem” or “a worry” by most Somali. The emphasis on outdoor recreation may reflect host-country worries that low utilization of urban forests and national parks may lead to lesser environmental protection engagement among some immigrants. However, some study has revealed that immigrants want to appreciate and protect their neighbourhood’s scarce green spaces, albeit this is not always the case.

Social limitations
The interplay between social and material/economic constraints is obvious in participants’ waste management accounts. Somali immigrants in Manchester stated that because there was less waste generated in Somalia, an advanced recycling system was not required. They were unable to participate in waste recycling to the level they would have liked upon arrival in the UK due to poor service, insufficient infrastructure, and, more broadly, inefficient municipal trash management in Moss Side. However, the overwhelming structural impediments to recycling and effective waste management directed the attention to social factors, citizens roles and obligations, as well as those elected/paid to serve them. Somali immigrants advocated that local institutions and inhabitants share responsibility for neighbourhood upkeep (i.e., clean-up activities organized by citizens in collaboration with their neighbours). This viewpoint appeared to be frequently associated with the Somali environment, in which families and neighbourhood communities care for their surroundings without expecting government intervention.