There are certain events that occur in mitosis that are not the same for meiosis. For instance, in mitosis, chromosomes do not line up in pairs on the metaphase plate, they line independently. This happens so that each daughter cell can get a sister chromatid from the homologous pair.
Before the splitting of the nuclear envelope, homologous chromosomes are brought very close to each other so that they can either pair together or exist independently. In mitosis, chromosomes line up independently on the metaphase plate. However, the opposite is the case in meiosis. Chromosomes line up on the metaphase plate in pairs in meiosis.
That means for every chromosome, there is a matching chromosome. And the interesting thing is that both have the same size, shape, and carry the same gene. This explains why they are often referred to as homologous pairs of chromosomes. However, there are also some changes in other stages.