Hui Shan carries an umbrella to work every day and it is not to protect herself from the rain — or even from the sun.

The 38-year-old carries it to protect herself from assault and abuse.

Ms Shan was born in a small town near Shanghai in China.

At her mother's urging, she decided to learn English — despite her own desire to learn Japanese.

She honed the language during a stint in England before moving with her husband to Australia in 2019.

Every day, she travels the 10 or so kilometres from her home in Sandy Bay to her office in Hobart's northern suburbs.

She parks several hundred metres away, wraps her fingers tightly around her umbrella and begins a long and fearful walk to work.

"In March this year, there are two young teenagers, one of them riding a scooter, and they pass by my office building," she said.

For Ms Shan, this is not uncommon. She said she's regularly stopped by teenagers who ask for money and then mock her English when she responds.

"On Wednesday 22nd of May, I still remember that date, I was a bit late for my work so I walk very fast to the building," Ms Shan said.

"On the way I saw 10 teenagers just walking in front of me so I try and slow my pace. I don't want to get any attention from them. But there's a girl that turned back and saw me. Then she began to shout at me.

"She keep laughing at me and mock my pronunciation and the others just followed her, laughing at me.

Ms Shan said police told her they'd given the teenagers verbal warnings and threatened to contact their parents.

"Police didn't do anything after that. They didn't even ask me what kind of outcome I want," she said.

"The law is really lax and you guys need to make tougher measure and laws against teenager crime.

Police warn of consequences

Tasmania Police said although there hadn't been an increase in reports of racially motivated hate crime, there had been an uptick in youth crime.

Acting Inspector Jason Klug said it was mostly confined to a small group of recidivist offenders.

"It is extremely disappointing that a member of our Glenorchy community has been subject to abuse," Acting Inspector Klug said.

"Police have a range of legislative powers to deal with anti-social behaviour and will interdict, disrupt, and hold to account those people who offend.

"Powers of arrest, move on directions or exclusions, search provisions are all considerations for police when attending to anti-social behaviour."

He said Youth Crime Intervention Units were engaging with young offenders and that an inspector had been dedicated to engaging with community groups like the Multicultural Council of Tasmania.

Immigrants alone, together

Ms Shan said, despite working next door to a large shopping centre, she didn't leave the office for lunch.

She encouraged others to stand up for people they see being racially abused — if they feel safe to do so.

"In my case, on that day, there was only a taxi driver who I think is also a new immigrant.

"He didn't stand up for me. I don't blame him because he can easily be attacked by teenagers too."

Police said witnesses to and victims of anti-social behaviour should move away from the area and call police as soon as possible.

'We are taught racism'

Aimen Jafri's pleas for change have been a constant amid a spate of race-based assaults and attacks in Tasmania this year.

But the chair of the Multicultural Council believes the state is starting to turn a corner.

"And there is light on the other side of the tunnel because I've seen, in my six years, Tasmanians are amazing people."

In June, former premier and chair of the Migrant Resource Centre Tasmania Peter Gutwein, walked the length of the state to highlight the plight of maligned migrants.

Ms Jafri said it had started conversations at an adult level and that it would trickle down to children.

"Nobody is born with an innate nature of hate," she said.

"If they grow up learning migrants are a problem, they're taking away our homes, they're taking away our jobs, they'll think that way."

Dreams of a 'better life'

Change hasn't come soon enough for Ms Shan.

She said the constant fear had taken a toll on her mental health.

"I come here to learn my English and try to fit into society but those people who shout at me and ask me to go back to China makes me feel I sometimes really regret learning English," she said.