Racially Motivated Hate Crimes and Incidents Against Immigrants in Lithuania

Abstract

The article analyses the experiences of racially motivated hate incidents against immigrants in Lithuania, based on the data of a qualitative study. Interviews with informants in the study show that prejudice, verbal and physical violence incidents are an integral part of the daily lives of immigrants with visible ethnic and racial identities. Racist hate incidents make it possible to identify latent interactions between immigrants and local residents. Based on examples of hate incidents, the article critically analyses the typology of hate crimes by Levin and McDevitt (1993) and the limitations of its application in hate incident analysis.