After the Second World War Slovenia was an emigration country before it developed into an immigration country from 1955 to 1990. The collapse of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav wars, and Slovenia's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia (1991) led to the emergence of forced migration and temporary refugee migration from war zones in the former Yugoslavia. In the early 1990s, many people left the country. The wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina then led to a mass influx of refugees. Between 1998 and 2000, an increase in irregular migration from African and Asian countries occurred. There was also an increase in the number of asylum seekers¹. Between 1990 and 2019, the migrant population (born abroad) increased from 178,100 to 253,100 and the proportion of migrants in the total population grew from 8.9 to 12.2%². Slovenia has developed to a destination country for immigrants especially from other Eastern European states and a transit country for refugees from Asia and Africa³.

There are 46,100 people with a migration background aged 65 years or older. Of those, approx. 1,800 are estimated to exhibit some form of dementia. Calculations show the most affected migrant groups presumably originate from Croatia (approx. 700), Bosnia and Herzegovina (approx. 500), Serbia (approx. 300), North Macedonia (approx. 60) and Germany (approx. 50)⁴.

‘Slovenia's Dementia Management Strategy 2020’ from 2015 consists of 36 pages and addresses the topics of the epidemiology of dementia, disease stigma, access to social welfare services, representation of persons with dementia, or dementia research. However, none of these topics are related to migration⁵. The ‘Guidelines for Treatment of Patients With Dementia’ published in 2013 has 39 pages and covers the topics of the definition and diagnosis of mild cognitive decline and dementia, treatment, or psychosocial measures in dementia. The issue of migration is not mentioned at any point in the document⁶. In the 224-page document ‘National Health Plan Resolution 2016-2025: Together for the Health Society’ from 2016, which has a section on dementia, migration is briefly mentioned, but not in the context of dementia⁷.