This paper examines how majority- and minority-ethnic high school students’ search for “similar” peers drives social and ethnic micro-segregation within the apparently egalitarian Danish school system. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a diverse Copenhagen high school, it traces how the participating students searched for and recognized, but also crafted and enacted “similarity” in their social interactions. It argues that the students’ tendency to form friendships with what they regard as ‘similar’ others was partly guided by the political and cultural marking of certain categories, a tacit ethno-racialized divide that limits their social orientation, as well as the distinctions of class, gender and youth subcultures made relevant in the social context of the high school. At the same time, similarities were also created through interaction, guided by the students’ desire for recognition, safety, and social appeal, thereby reinforcing segregation. Importantly, while such segregation is often framed in Danish debates as a problem of “self-segregation” among minority-ethnic students, majority-ethnic youth showed a similar tendency to cluster together. At the same time, these youth also split into groups seemingly reflecting subtle social class differences that reinforced social segregation in less visible ways.

In much research, including the influential work of Pierre Bourdieu, segregation is explained through ‘homophily’ - the tendency for people to interact with those perceived as similar (Bourdieu 1990; McPherson, Smith-Lovin, and Cook 2001). While social, ethnic, cultural, and religious differences do exist due distinct social, political and historical conditions, and while socio-economic inequality and racial discrimination generate real disparities in life chances, this paper questions the widespread assumption that social classes, ‘in-groups’ and ‘out-groups’, or categories such as ‘white’ and ‘black’ or ‘ethnic minority’ and ‘majority’ are internally homogeneous and fundamentally different from one another. Instead, it argues for an interactional and processual  approach to similarity and difference. Drawing on Barth (1969, 1994), Bottero (2009), Lamont and Molnár (2002), Gullestad (1992, 2002), and Ahmed (2006, 2014), the paper highlights how similarity and difference in the high school context are also produced through political markings of categories, processes of cultural distinctions, orientation in social encounters, young people’s needs for belonging and recognition and not least mutual adjustments in everyday interactions.

The material presented in the paper derives from a collective project on how young people’s educational pathways shape social and ethnic segregation. As part of this project, I conducted four months of fieldwork at Middelvang High School and at a vocational school in Copenhagen. At Middelvang, I focused on two classes - 1y (year one) and 2x (year two) - where I carried out participant observation and informal conversations in lessons and breaks and conducted interviews with 22 students - 11 majority-ethnic and 11 minority-ethnic youth, aged 16-18 - about their past and current experiences and choices related to education. In addition, I conducted interviews with three teachers and a survey with 40 students in the two classes focusing on their socio-economic backgrounds, their parents’ education and employment, and their future aspirations.

The paper argues that the students’ tendency to form friendships with what they regard as ‘similar’ others was partly guided by the political and cultural marking of certain categories, a tacit ethno-racialized divide that lim-its their social orientation, as well as the distinctions of class, gender and youth subcultures made relevant in the social context of the high school. At the same time, similarities were also created through interaction, guided by the students’ desire for recognition, safety, and social appeal, thereby reinforcing segregation. Importantly, while such segregation is often framed in Danish debates as a problem of “self-segregation” among minority-ethnic students, majority-ethnic youth showed a similar tendency to cluster together. At the same time, these youth also split into groups seemingly reflecting subtle social class differences that re-inforced social segregation in less visible ways.

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