Summary Racism is a public health crisis. Black communities (including Africans, the African diaspora and people of African descent) experience worse health outcomes as demonstrated by almost any measure of health and wellbeing—e.g. life expectancy; disease prevalence; maternal mortality rates. While health promotion has its foundation in promoting equity and social justice, it is clear that however well-intended, we are not affecting meaningful change for Black communities quickly enough. Through this article, we outline the intersection of social determinants of health and anti-Black racism. We describe how in the first 8 months of 2020 Black communities around the globe have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, while also having to respond to new instances of police brutality. We assert that the time has come for health promotion to stop neutralizing the specific needs of Black communities into unspoken ‘good intentions’. Instead, we offer some concrete ways for the field to become outspoken, intentional and honest in acknowledging what it will take to radically shift how we promote health and wellbeing for Black people.

Refugees from the Global South face many challenges when they arrive in Europe, not least having their subjectivities and beliefs questioned as part of requests for them to adapt to the norms of the destination context. Although there has been much critical research on migrant integration and adaptation, few of these studies have used an intergenerational lens to investigate the experiences of refugee children and youth. This article addresses this research gap using a social navigation theoretical framework and qualitative data obtained from focus group discussions with Eritrean and Afghan unaccompanied minors, young adults, and parents. The findings demonstrate how challenges and resources associated with adaptation identified across generations were related to (a) the frequency and nature of interactions between refugees, their compatriots, and Norwegians; (b) learning the Norwegian language; (c) comprehension of Norway's bureaucratic welfare systems; and (d) accepting Norwegian cultural values while maintaining transnational cultural ties. Notably, unaccompanied minors, young adults, and parents all navigated dual cultures as part of efforts to achieve normative Norwegian markers of successful migrant adaptation. Significantly, the older generational groups had the most difficulty “breaking” into Norwegian society. Overall, it is argued that to understand better the challenges migrants face when they are required to adapt to a new life in a destination context and the implications of these challenges for their aspirations, it is important to include both a focus on how they move through the society (social navigation) and the interactivity between generations (intergenerational perspective).

In this chapter, the authors give a brief overview of research on salutogenesis and migration, including both forced and voluntary migration. Salutogenesis has been used to frame labour migration and how people respond and adapt to new cultural contexts.The focus is mainly on forced migration, i.e. the case of refugees. The authors consider research framed by the Salutogenic Model of Health and research with refugees that uses the broader ‘salutogenic’ approach. They conclude by discussing how salutogenesis adds insight – but may also induce distraction – in the study of refugee migration.

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