Greenlandic victims of Denmark's 'parenting tests' still don't have their children back

Denmark has used a parenting test to rip children away from Greenlandic parents — but even though this test has been banned for Greenlanders, the families are still not being reunited.

Key Takeaways:

• Denmark has used parenting competency tests to determine whether or not Greenland's parents can maintain custody of their children.

• These tests are highly controversial and have been criticized as being racist against native Greenlanders.

• Assessments are administered in Danish rather than in a speaker's native language.

• Native Greenlanders are significantly more likely to have their children removed from their custody than Danish parents.

• Recently, Denmark apologized for its forced sterilization scheme committed against Greenlanders.

The Details:

Denmark uses assessments and competency tests called FKUs to determine if a person should be allowed to keep their child. The assessments are meant to be used in welfare cases in which officials believe a child could potentially be harmed, but they take months to administer, and there has been widespread criticism that the tests are biased against native Greenlanders.

Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. While Greenland is self-governing, Greenlanders also have Danish citizenship. This means thousands of Greenlanders live and work in Denmark, and face ongoing discrimination of various kinds — including being subject to FKUs.

Purportedly, these tests are used only in instances where there is already reason for concern. Yet it is Greenlandic families who are most often affected, with little cultural sensitivity used in the tests. They are not administered in Greenlandic, but in Danish, meaning a language barrier could exist; they also fail to take into account the culture in Greenland.

Earlier this year, the Danish government banned the use of these tests on Greenlandic families, but the problem is ongoing.

Zoom In:

The BBC reported that children are still not being reunited with their families, with many of the children having been placed for adoption with Danish families.

Keira Alexandra Kronvold is one of the mothers affected, with her daughter Zammi taken away from her just hours after she was born. "Right when she came out, I started counting the minutes," Kronvold said. "I kept looking at the clock to see how long we had."

When they took her, Kronvold said, "It felt like a part of my soul died."

Kronvold had undergone the parental assessment in 2024 while she was pregnant, and was ruled to lack "sufficient parental competencies to care for the newborn independently." Yet reports indicate that the questions asked were things like, "Who is Mother Teresa?" and "How long does it take for the sun's rays to reach the Earth?" rather than questions related to parenting.

Additionally, the test required Kronvold to do demeaning things, like play with a baby doll to see how she acted with it, and she was criticized for not making enough eye contact with it. When she asked why she had to do these things, she was told, "To see if you are civilized enough, if you can act like a human being."

Another couple, Johanne and Ulrik, had their son taken from them, though they got to stay together for 17 days because he was born prematurely. "It was the happiest time of my life as a father," Ulrik said. "Being with my son, holding him, changing his nappy, making sure that Johanne pumps her milk before going to bed in the evening."

Johanne had undergone FKU testing in 2019, and already had two children taken from her. She was described as "narcissistic" and as having "mental retardation." Among the tests she was given was a Rorschach test. She said it looked like a seal being gutted by a woman — a common sight in Greenlandic culture, in which hunting and fishing are very common. For that, Johanne said she was called a "barbarian."

According to psychologist Isak Nellemann, if the FKU result is negative, then the child will almost certainly be taken away. This disproportionately affects Greenlandic parents, who have their children removed much more often than Danish parents.

And now, even with the tests having been banned, it is still difficult for parents to get their children back.

The Backstory:

This scandal is not an isolated one, but part of a larger pattern in Denmark.

Earlier this year, a report confirmed the Danish government conducted a sterilization campaign against Greenlandic women. The Danish prime minister finally admitted this and apologized.

Thousands of Greenlandic women, including teenaged girls, were given various forms of birth control without their knowledge or consent; typically, these were IUDs or other forms of long-acting contraception. The campaign was at its peak in the 1960s and 1970s but continued even into the 1990s. It is estimated to have impacted nearly half of the Greenlandic childbearing population at its peak.

Greenlander Katrine Petersen was 13 when she got pregnant. Doctors committed an abortion, and then implanted an IUD... all without her consent. “Because of my age, I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “I kept it inside me and never talked about it."

Today, Petersen is 52, and though she got married as an adult, she was never able to have more children.

The same happened to Katrine Jakobsen, who was 12 when an IUD was implanted in her uterus, something the said was immensely painful. The IUD was in place for 20 years, and caused so many complications, her uterus had to be removed. "It's had a big impact on my life. I never had children," she said. "I never told anyone. I always thought I was alone in this."

Initially, the Greenlandic population thrived when it became part of Denmark in 1953; by 1970, the population had doubled. Within just a few years of the forced birth control campaign, the birth rate had been slashed in half.

Aviaja Siegstad, a gynaecologist at Queen Ingrid's Hospital in Nuuk, said the scheme came to light in the 1990s and 2000s, when Greenlandic women were complaining that they could not conceive. They had no idea the IUDs had been implanted. "In a couple of cases we were able to date the IUD back to women who had abortions and probably had it placed after an abortion without being told," she said.

The Bottom Line:

Countless women were robbed of their chance to be mothers, simply because of their ethnicity and heritage. While the horrific sterilization campaign has formally ended, it appears that the discrimination continued, with children still being ripped away from their parents.