The paper explores what lies behind the development of Sámi child protection services in practice. The study is an empirical investigation of how policymakers and child welfare leaders reflect on the challenges and opportunities in this field. All the twelve participants in the study worked in northernmost counties of Norway that are part of the Sámi-language administrative district. Although Norwegian regulation is clear when it comes to the cultural and linguistic rights of Sámi children, it is hard for child welfare services to adhere to this in practice. In this article, the focus is on one important aspect that we argue contributes to this situation, which we refer to as "invisible differentness". Due to the historical misuse of ethnic information in Norway, there is no practice of recording Sámi ethnicity in 2 Norwegian censuses. This makes the Sámi population invisible in both statistics and the Norwegian child welfare system, whose administrative branch does not ask about indigenous status. As such, the administrative system does not help child welfare services to consider Sámi identity when meeting with Sámi children and families. As a result, it is up to the caseworker and his or her personal knowledge of the family to preserve the children's rights to recognition and protection of their Sámi culture and language. This creates a vulnerable situation for Sámi children and families and the protection of their rights. The authors argue for the importance of including ethnicity in the administrative language and system of child welfare services.

Background Raising children in new social and cultural contexts can be challenging for parents. In order to help parents address these challenges, the Norwegian government has instituted a policy of mandatory parent training for families who settle in Norway as refugees. The Incredible Years (IY) and The International Child Development Programme (ICDP) have been widely adopted throughout Norway. They have similar aims: to improve parenting through positive parenting practices and development of attachment behaviors. We will evaluate the use of these programs and a measurement feedback system (MFS) to give regular feedback to interventionists about parents’ progress during the course of the parenting intervention. Methods The study is a mixed method, randomized factorial design aimed at evaluating the effect of parenting interventions and the use of feedback to address parental stress, child behavior, resilience, and parents’ mental health. Factor 1 is based on random assignment to one of the parenting interventions IY or ICDP. The parenting interventions are delivered over 15 weeks (IY) or 12 weeks (ICDP) in group-based settings. Factor 2 is based on random assignment of the parenting groups to the (a) with MFS or (b) without MFS condition. The MFS is answered weekly via a phone app, MittEcho, and results are sent to group leaders in the MFS condition. Additionally, the study explores the experiences of families settling in a new cultural context and participating with parenting programs via qualitative interviews. Participants will be recruited from a population of parents with children between the age of 6 and 12 years who settled in Norway as refugees within the previous 9 years. The target sample size is N = 360; n (IY) = 180, n (ICDP) = 180 families. This study is a collaboration between first-line, municipal services; their national governing agencies; family representatives; and a national network of research organizations. Discussion This study endeavors to provide information about what helps families with refugee background integrate successfully into new cultural contexts with different laws, norms, and expectations. Whether or not these interventions can help to normalize this experience, reduce stress, and provide parents with new tools to improve their parenting and the lives of their children are important questions which we address. These findings can lead to the further establishment of evidence-based practices in Norway. Trial registration ISRCTN35008070. Registered on February 24, 2020

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