The Maltese islands have a long migration history¹ due to their geographical location in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea and the British colonial rule, which lasted for 164 years until 1964. After being an emigration country Malta developed into an immigration country in the course of the 20th century¹ due to for example the Second Gulf War, the collapse of Yugoslavia¹, accession to the EU² and asylum seekers^1,3. The migrant population of Malta (born abroad) more than quintupled between 1990 and 2019 (15,100 to 84,900). At the same time, the proportion of migrants in the total population has increased from 4.2 to 19.3%⁴.

There are 5,700 people with a migration background aged 65 or older. Of those, approx. 400 are estimated to exhibit some form of dementia. Calculations show the most affected migrant groups presumably originate from Great Britain (approx. 200), Italy (approx. 20), Germany (approx. 10), the US (approx. 10), and Australia (approx. 10)⁵.

The ‘National Strategy for Dementia in the Maltese Islands 2015–2023’ from 2015 has 132 pages and addresses the topics of definition of dementia, types of dementia, dementia risk and protective factors, the burden of dementia, financial consequences of dementia, the perspective of people with dementia and their caregivers, dementia awareness, early diagnosis and intervention, drug and non-drug interventions, community-based care services, long-term and palliative care, ethical aspects related to dementia management and care, and research. The topic of migration is absent⁶. Malta published the three-page guideline 'Dementia Treatment' in 2012. This document deals exclusively with the drug treatment of dementia using donepezil. In this context, no reference to migration is made in it⁷.