Almost 90% Inuit and a Danish minority: that is who lives in Greenland | EUROtoday

Listen to the audio model of the article

In Greenland, nearly 90% of the inhabitants is made up of Inuit, an indigenous individuals tailored to Arctic life, current for hundreds of years earlier than the arrival of Europeans and who converse the Greenlandic language. Then there are the Danes, who’re the principle ethnic minority (about 8% of the full) and who typically converse each Danish and Greenlandic, after which small communities from different European nations, Asia and North America.

The common Greenlander has 75% Iniut ancestry and 25% European ancestry. But lately, the island has seen a big enhance in immigration from Asia, significantly from the Philippines, Thailand and China.

On the island that ended up in President Trump’s sights, the presence of the Danes is linked to the lengthy political relationship between Greenland and Denmark, which dates again to the colonial interval. In 1953 the Arctic island grew to become a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, however in 1979 it grew to become an autonomous territory throughout the Kingdom. Danes represent a big minority and reside primarily in city centres, the place they usually work in public administration, healthcare, schooling and commerce.

The Inuit

Ethnographically, the Inuit include three most important teams: the Kalaallit of western Greenland, who converse Kalaallisut;

the Tunumiit, who reside within the jap half and converse Tunumiit oraasiat, i.e. “Eastern Greenlandic” and the Inughuit of northern Greenland, who converse Inuktun, “polar Inuit”.