The ‘racist’ parenting test fuelling Denmark–Greenland tensions

With Donald Trump’s vow to take charge of Greenland putting the status of the autonomous Danish territory in the spotlight, a controversial parenting test has become emblematic of the tensions between the Danish state and indigenous Greenlanders.

For years, campaigners have spoken out against “parenting competency” tests – forældrekompetenceundersøgelse in Danish, commonly shortened to FKU – used in Denmark by child protection services. They argue that the test discriminates against parents from Denmark’s Greenlandic Inuit minority, which currently numbers around 17,000, because it fails to account for different cultural and social norms.

The Danish government has said it will no longer use the FKU in cases involving Greenlandic families – but the memory of high-profile recent cases of Inuit mothers being separated from their children will take a long time to fade.

‘Far-reaching consequences’

Close to 6% of native Greenlandic children in Denmark are in care or living in foster homes, compared to around 1% of Danish children, according to a 2022 report by the Danish Centre for Social Science Research. The reasons for this are complex. The report found that “the number of Greenlandic families in Denmark with serious social problems such as abuse and financial problems is greater than the number of Danish families in the same situation”, said the Greenlandic Broadcasting Corporation. But “the relationship between Greenlandic families and Danish caseworkers is often worsened by language and cultural differences”.

The Danish Institute for Human Rights said in 2022 that Greenlandic parents ran a higher risk of obtaining low test scores because of cultural differences and language barriers. “Misjudgments” made as a result of the test “can have far-reaching consequences for both children and parents, as in the extreme they can contribute to the forced removal of a child”.

In November, a Greenlandic Inuit woman’s new-born daughter was “forcibly removed from her arms” by Danish social workers hours after she gave birth, said The Times. Keira Alexandra Kronvold had failed the FKU assessment while pregnant – according to her case file, one cause for concern was that different interpretations of facial expressions in Inuit culture would make it hard for Kronvold to raise her child in line with the “social expectations and codes necessary to navigate Danish society”.

‘Significant U-turn’

Last month, Denmark announced that the FKU would no longer be used on Greenlandic families, citing doubts “as to whether a standardised psychological test sufficiently takes into account the Greenlandic culture and language”. Instead, such cases will be handled with the help of a special unit which has Greenlandic cultural expertise. The government has also reportedly agreed to reassess cases where psychological tests may have led to an unfair removal of Greenlandic children.

This marks a “significant U-turn” in policy, said The Guardian. But some “questioned the timing”, so soon after Trump’s declaration that acquiring Greenland would be an “absolute necessity” for the US.

Aka Hansen, an Inuit film-maker who has led protests against the FKU, told the newspaper the abolition of the test was “long overdue”. “It’s a big surprise to us that all of a sudden they are able to make changes to the law,” she added.

Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede said this month that the territory had “had enough” of being told it should be grateful to Copenhagen for being “good colonial masters”. If Denmark had treated Greenlanders better historically, he added, perhaps they would not be debating the island’s future.