This document by the United Nations clearly outlines why many people in Greenland want independence.
As part of Denmark, Greenland does not have its own independent visa policy. It also does not grant freedom of movement to European Union citizens. The Nordic Passport Union citizens are not interested in working in Greenlandic mines, and its not simple for Eastern Europeans to move to Greenland for work.
Greenland wants independence so they can import foreign labor from China in order to develop their domestic mines. Chinese corporations want Greenland to be independent so they can exploit the valuable minerals on the island, which almost certainly would mostly employee Chinese nationals, leaving few benefits for Greenlanders.
I’m concerned that the main reason independence is being pushed for now is China and Russia want to remove Greenland from NATO.
So China and especially Russia have a lot of potential benefits if Greenland became independent.
Just yesterday, Putin announced he is ready to go to war regarding the future of the island.
I believe they are the real beneficiaries of Greenlandic independence. As it is today, Russia and China need to work through Denmark and the European Union if they want to trade with Greenland, and some Danish rules still apply. If Greenland was independent, that would no longer be the case. They could pressure the country to push out NATO troops from Thule and other vital military bases, increasing Russia’s relative position in the Arctic. They could then pressure that the Arctic Archipelago in northern Canada should also be independent, and pressure a new independent Nunavut to build deep relations for Russia in order to exploit their natural resources.
They could pressure the governments of these small independent countries to not join NATO or any economic unions through promises of investment. This will be the great game for the Arctic, and if they can convince both Nunavut and Greenland to be independent, potentially taking the Northwest Territories with them, Russia would have a dominant geographic position in the Arctic, almost turning it into a Russian lake. This is why Putin states he is willing to go to war over the region, even when he is losing in Ukraine.
Russia has had very successful tactics to infiltrate democratic countries like Greenland since at least the 1960s by focusing on historic grievances and pushing those into the conscience of the people, regardless of what the current situation is. Portray that it is SEATO which is the imperialist power in Vietnam. NATO is portrayed as colonial in Ukraine, despite it being voluntary like SEATO. Focus on historic grievances which are no longer relevant. Articles talking about slavery and discrimination against Native Americans. Continue to bring up the Holocaust regularly regarding anything in Germany. Continuously bring up British colonization of India. Discuss France’s relationships with their colonies in Africa. Bring up the Belgian Congo in Belgian politics.
All of these were real problems. Most of them are completely historic, and have a diminishing impact on day to day lives of people now. The damage was real, but has been done. Some are not completely over, there is still racial discrimination to deal with, France’s relationships with its colonies in Africa is still problematic. But it has improved. By portraying the issues we have today as being on par with where they were in the past, the goal is to make you despair, disengage, and pressure your leaders to not get involved in Ukraine, Syria, or other countries where Russia is doing their shenanigans.
The difference is the situation in Russia has not substantially improved.
They also do not want you to talk about the Holodomor, and push a narrative that it is a conspiracy tied in with “Russophobia”. The difference between the Holodomor and the Holocaust is simple. Germany hasn’t deliberately targeted Jews for destruction in 80 years. Russia is killing Ukrainians in their homes today. One of these is ongoing, one of these is history. They are not the same.
Russophobia is a myth.
I have a hunch that the same thing is happening in Greenland because it is the same pattern.
Russia has been accused of forging a letter from Greenland’s foreign minister to US Senator John Cotton claiming they wanted to start an independence referendum. They have also floated the idea of splitting Greenland with the United States under Trump.
Given Russia’s successful media operations across the democratic world pushing for Brexit, the election of Donald Trump, and certainly more, combined with them forging letters to US Senators pretending to be from the Greenlandic government, it seems absurd that they have not been blasting Greenland with pro-independence messages for at least the last decade, by bringing up historic grievances which from my understanding have already been dealt with by both granting them representation in the Riksdag, and also significant autonomy within the Kingdom of Denmark.
As we have seen many times before, in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Transnistria, and more, the Russian government blasts people constantly with a message that they are a separate people from the country they are in, and they are discriminated against (even if there is no evidence of systemic current discrimination), and the best way for them to solve their problems is through independence. They might also convince you that your membership in the European Union is infringing on your “sovereignty” as they told British voters. They then convince you to become independent, and you do. Russia then moves in to increase their political influence, they effectively annex your “independent” country, and you find yourself far worse off than you did before. You have a weaker passport, you are poorer, you have fewer liberties at home, and the Russian oligarchs ransack your region. You find yourself moving from democracy to military occupation.
If Greenland becomes independent, they need to be very clear about what benefits they feel they will receive by becoming independent.
Everything about this movement smells like Brexit and the “liberation” of Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Transnistria, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia to me with this context.
If Greenland becomes independent, they must maintain their membership in NATO while also pursuing membership with the European Economic Area. They did successfully leave the European Economic Area, and I doubt they will join the Nordic Union. Without these memberships Greenland will be isolated diplomatically, without sufficient military protection, and in a far worse position. Iceland was able to successfully gain independence in 1944 during World War II, and joined the Nordic Passport Union in 1952, preserving and extending the rights they enjoyed as part of Denmark.
Greenland could theoretically work with the same type of situation as an independent state. But they must preserve their membership in NATO, Nordic Passport Union, and their rights to live and work in the European Union/Schengen Area/EEA.
Otherwise they could just end up as yet another Russian colony.