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Artikkelen undersøker hvorfor minoritetsungdom beskriver seg selv som utlendinger i den norske skolen, og spør hvordan skolen som institusjon bidrar til (re)produksjonen av kategoriene «utlending» og «norsk». Undersøkelsen tar utgangspunkt i et feltarbeid der jeg har fulgt og intervjuet ungdom med flyktningbakgrunn og deres lærere i ulike former for språkklasser. Teoretisk bygger artikkelen videre på den akademiske diskusjonen om «norskhet», men hevder at det romlige perspektivet bør tillegges større betydning. Jeg trekker på Sara Ahmeds teoretisering av hvithet  når jeg undersøker hvilken betydning hvithetsnormen har for skolen som institusjon og hvordan ungdommene navigerer innenfor denne. I artikkelen argumenterer jeg for at kategorien «utlending» blir til gjennom en rasialiseringsprosess der rom, hudfarge og språk er sentrale komponenter som forsterkes i skolen.

Here, I explore young female Muslims’ (age 13–17 years) everyday negotiations and practices of belonging in Norwegian towns. The analysis draws on Nira Yuval-Davis’ writing on belonging and the politics of belonging, and illustrates how discourses of belonging/non-belonging to the nation come into play in social encounters. The analysis is presented through three individual stories using an intersectional lens, including a time–space dimension, deconstructing the category ‘Muslim girl’. The stories provide insights into young women’s experiences and challenges regarding the contemporary politics of belonging in Northern Europe, highlighting their strategies for negotiating and creating belonging, including the role space plays in these strategies.

This article explores the everyday lives of young former refugees in small Norwegian towns and considers how a focus on “doing belonging” can help us understand the processes of place attachment and social inclusion/exclusion in a time of increasing diversity and social division. By looking at these youths’ everyday activities and social networks using a range of participatory methods, this article describes how former refugee youths actively work to create and maintain a sense of belonging. The study shows that the youths simultaneously draw on shared knowledge from their social networks and on embodied knowledge gained through the habitual use of place to perform belonging. It is argued that embodiment, as in being a particular type of body interacting with people and place, matters; other crucial aspects are freedom to move and experience the materiality of place, and that former refugees’ belonging needs to be understood as relating to other people’s understandings of their right to belong. The study shows that particular structural conditions for doing belonging should be considered by policy makers.