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The Spanish government is pursuing a noticeably unique direction from several developed states when it comes to migration policies and engagement with the African mainland.

Whereas countries like the US, Britain, France and Germany are reducing their development aid budgets, Spain continues dedicated to increasing its engagement, though from a lower starting point.

Current Programs

This week, the Spanish capital has been welcoming an African Union-backed "global summit on persons of African origin". The African diaspora summit will examine corrective fairness and the formation of a innovative support mechanism.

This demonstrates the most recent sign of how Spain's socialist-led government is working to enhance and broaden its involvement with the region that lies just a short distance to the south, beyond the Gibraltar passage.

Strategic Framework

During summer External Affairs Minister José Manuel Albares established a new advisory council of renowned scholarly, foreign service and arts representatives, over 50 percent of them from Africa, to monitor the delivery of the comprehensive Madrid-Africa plan that his government published at the end of last year.

Fresh consular offices in sub-Saharan regions, and partnerships in enterprise and education are scheduled.

Movement Regulation

The difference between Madrid's strategy and that of others in the West is not just in funding but in tone and outlook – and especially noticeable than in dealing with immigration.

Comparable with different EU nations, Administration Head Madrid's chief executive is exploring approaches to contain the arrival of undocumented migrants.

"In our view, the migratory phenomenon is not only a matter of ethical standards, solidarity and honor, but also one of rationality," the government leader stated.

Over 45,000 people undertook the dangerous ocean journey from West African coastline to the island territory of the Atlantic islands the previous year. Calculations of those who perished while undertaking the journey range between 1,400 to a astonishing 10,460.

Effective Measures

The Spanish administration has to accommodate recent entrants, evaluate their applications and handle their incorporation into broader community, whether temporary or more enduring.

However, in rhetoric markedly different from the confrontational statements that emanates from many European capitals, the Sanchez government publicly recognizes the challenging monetary conditions on the ground in West Africa that force persons to endanger themselves in the attempt to attain Europe.

Additionally, it strives to move beyond simply refusing entry to new arrivals. Instead, it is creating innovative options, with a promise to promote movements of people that are safe, orderly and standardized and "reciprocally advantageous".

Economic Partnerships

While traveling to the Mauritanian Republic last year, Madrid's representative emphasized the participation that foreign workers make to the national finances.

The Spanish government funds training schemes for jobless young people in countries such as the Senegalese Republic, particularly for undocumented individuals who have been returned, to support them in establishing workable employment options in their homeland.

Additionally, it enlarged a "circular migration" programme that provides West Africans limited-duration authorizations to enter Spanish territory for defined timeframes of seasonal work, mostly in cultivation, and then come home.

Policy Significance

The fundamental premise supporting Madrid's outreach is that the Iberian nation, as the European country nearest to the continent, has an crucial domestic priority in the region's development toward comprehensive and lasting growth, and tranquility and protection.

This fundamental reasoning might seem obvious.

Yet of course the past had directed Spain down a distinctly separate route.

Besides a several North African presences and a small tropical outpost – presently autonomous the Gulf of Guinea country – its colonial expansion in the 16th and 17th Centuries had mostly been oriented across the Atlantic.

Forward Vision

The heritage aspect includes not only dissemination of the national tongue, with an expanded presence of the Spanish cultural organization, but also schemes to help the transfer of educational instructors and scholars.

Protection partnership, initiatives concerning global warming, gender equality and an enhanced consular representation are unsurprising components in the current climate.

However, the approach also puts notable focus it places on assisting democratic values, the pan-African body and, in specific, the regional West African group the Economic Community of West African States.

This represents welcome public encouragement for the latter, which is currently under severe pressure after witnessing its half-century celebration spoiled by the walk-out of the Sahelian states – the Sahel country, Mali and Niger – whose controlling military regimes have refused to comply with its standard for political freedom and good governance.

Simultaneously, in a message targeted as much at Madrid's domestic audience as its sub-Saharan partners, the external affairs department stated "assisting the African community abroad and the struggle versus discrimination and anti-foreigner sentiment are also essential focuses".

Eloquent statements of course are only a initial phase. But in today's sour international climate such language really does stand out.