| Abstract [eng] |
After the so-called refugee crisis of 2015, it was not at all obvious that the EU would take in 6 million people fleeing Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. On the other hand, people from the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia crossing the EU-Belarus border are forcibly pushed back from Lithuanian territory, denied the opportunity to apply for asylum, subjected to violence and infringements of their other rights. In this work, I examine the images of these two migrant groups in Lithuanian media and interpret them using the concept of racial domination (whiteness). After thematically coding more than 2000 articles from two popular media portals (LRT and Lrytas), I identify four main themes: danger to national security, European unity, internal tensions and human rights. The theme of danger to national security dominates both the articles about Belarus and Ukraine. This theme highlights concerns about threats to Lithuania's sovereignty related to the actions of Russia and Belarus. The national security fears become linked to the people on the Lithuania-Belarus border, turning them into dangerous outsiders. European unity is highlighted in articles about Ukraine, which emphasize solidarity and the various links Ukrainians have with Lithuania. Internal tensions reveal socio-political problems in Lithuania related to the integration of foreigners, the allocation or the lack of resources. The theme of human rights is only prominent in the articles about Belarusian, where the rhetoric of human rights is used either to criticize the state's violent border policy, or to describe the minimal (symbolic) state assistance that is provided without interrupting the violent actions at the border. In the case of Ukraine, human rights rhetoric is not emphasized, because Ukrainians are perceived as strong, patriotic fighters – not as victims requiring state protection or humanitarian aid. In this thesis, I critique the explanations for the differences between these images that are often found in academic literature, most notably cultural proximity (language, shared history, especially of occupation, etc.). Following Withers (2017), I argue that in this case culture functions as a reproduction mechanism of racial domination (whiteness). I show that by interpreting differences in images through the prism of whiteness negotiations, Lithuania's actions can be understood as an attempt to protect itself from the growing threat of a Russian invasion by consolidating its position in the racial hierarchy of the European Union and moving closer to becoming the "true Europe”. |
