Latvia’s migration history is characterized by waves of large-scale immigration and emigration (especially to and from the Russian Federation)¹. Between the Second World War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990/1991, immigration of people from the Russian Federation predominated^2,3. After 1990 and especially following EU accession in 2004, emigration has increased significantly and Latvia has developed from an immigration country to an emigration country³. Between 1990 and 2019, the migrant population (born abroad) and the proportion of migrants in the total population decreased (646,000 to 237,300; 24.2 to 12.4%)⁴. However, as of 2016, a large number of people originating in the Russian Federation still live in Latvia (about a quarter of the population)¹. There are also small populations of people from Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania⁵.

In Latvia, about 118,200 people with a migration background are aged 65 or older. Of those, approx. 5,400 are estimated to exhibit some form of dementia. Calculations show the most affected migrant groups presumably originate from the Russian Federation (approx. 3,300), Belarus (approx. 1,100), Ukraine (approx. 600), Lithuania (approx. 400), and Kazakhstan (approx. 50)⁶.

Although no national dementia plan could be identified for Latvia, a ‘Clinical Guideline for Alzheimer's Disease, Vascular Dementia, Lewy-Body Dementia, and Frontotemporal Dementia’ was published in 2017. This document has 162 pages and covers topics such as the etiology, clinical picture, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of the most common forms of dementia. In none of these topics is a migration-related issue addressed⁷.