ABSTRACT
In 1970, the first official formulation regarding so-called foreign children appeared in a departmental circular from the Ministry of Education in Denmark. In the wake of this, Danish educational politics identified children of labour migrants from the global South as objects of and a specific problem for schooling, describing these children through their parents—or more specifically, through their parents’ relation to the labour market and their perceived special behaviour and mentality, the latter two often focusing on ‘traditions’ (in the 1970s), religion in relation to ‘culture’ (especially since the 1980s), and ‘values’ (since the 1990s). I explore how school authorities and professionals understood and developed pedagogical strategies that, on the one hand, saw the parents as a central problem and central explanation for their children’s behaviour at school and, on the other hand, regarded migrant parents as a resource in order to diversify the curriculum and schooling.
