The paper starts by focusing on the possible
relationship between teenagers' anti-foreign sentiments and some
distinguishing characteristics of the environment in which they were
brought up, that is social class, gender and contact across ethnic
boundaries. Hallmarks of their background are contrasted with aspects
of teenagers' individual identity - ethnic identity and gender role
identification. Using data from a large survey of students in upper
secondary schools in Oslo, we found that attitudes towards immigrants
varied according to all these factors. Inspired by writers like
Bourdieu on the one hand and Giddens and Ziehe on the other, we
question whether the relationship between identity and anti-foreign
attitudes are products of individualized identity struggles, more or
less independent of social background or whether the connection is
mediated through class and gender-specific experiences. The findings
are interpreted as evidence of both patterns. Individual ethnic
identity linked to anti-foreign sentiments seems to be partly rooted
in social-class background and gender, educational track and
parent-child socialization processes. But ethnic identity and gender
identity seem also to some degree to be independent factors in the
development of anti-foreign sentiments among teenagers.