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Madrid is adopting a distinctly different path from numerous developed states when it comes to movement regulations and engagement with the African mainland.

Whereas countries like the USA, Britain, French Republic and Germany are slashing their development aid budgets, Spain stays focused to expanding its participation, albeit from a reduced baseline.

New Initiatives

Currently, the capital city has been hosting an continent-endorsed "world conference on persons of African origin". The African diaspora summit will discuss reparative equity and the establishment of a innovative support mechanism.

This represents the most recent sign of how Spain's socialist-led government is attempting to strengthen and expand its cooperation with the continent that rests only a brief span to the south, across the Straits of Gibraltar.

Policy Structure

In July Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares initiated a new advisory council of distinguished academic, foreign service and heritage experts, more than half of them from Africa, to monitor the implementation of the detailed Madrid-Africa plan that his government published at the close of the prior year.

New embassies below the Sahara desert, and collaborations in business and academic are scheduled.

Immigration Control

The difference between Madrid's strategy and that of others in the West is not just in expenditure but in perspective and outlook – and particularly evident than in dealing with immigration.

Similar to other European locations, Administration Head Pedro Sanchez is seeking methods to manage the influx of undocumented migrants.

"In our view, the immigration situation is not only a question of moral principles, solidarity and honor, but also one of reason," the administration head said.

Exceeding 45,000 persons made the perilous sea crossing from the Atlantic African shore to the Spanish archipelago of the Atlantic islands the previous year. Calculations of those who perished while making the attempt extend from 1,400 to a staggering 10,460.

Practical Solutions

The Spanish administration needs to shelter new arrivals, evaluate their applications and handle their incorporation into broader community, whether temporary or more enduring.

However, in rhetoric noticeably distinct from the hostile messaging that originates from numerous EU governments, the Spanish administration publicly recognizes the hard economic realities on the region in the West African region that push people to risk their lives in the endeavor to achieve EU territory.

And it is trying to exceed simply saying "no" to recent entrants. Conversely, it is creating innovative options, with a commitment to foster movements of people that are protected, orderly and standardized and "jointly profitable".

Commercial Cooperation

On his trip to the Mauritanian Republic the previous year, Sanchez stressed the participation that migrants provide for the Iberian economic system.

Spain's leadership funds training schemes for youth without work in states like the West African country, especially for irregular migrants who have been repatriated, to help them develop sustainable income sources in their native country.

Additionally, it enlarged a "cyclical relocation" scheme that offers West Africans temporary permits to enter Spanish territory for limited periods of temporary employment, mainly in agriculture, and then return.

Policy Significance

The core principle guiding the Spanish approach is that the Iberian nation, as the EU member state closest to the mainland, has an crucial domestic priority in the continent's advancement toward inclusive and sustainable development, and peace and security.

This fundamental reasoning might seem apparent.

Yet of course history had taken the Iberian state down a noticeably unique course.

Besides a limited Mediterranean outposts and a minor equatorial territory – currently sovereign Equatorial Guinea – its imperial growth in the 16th and 17th Centuries had primarily been focused across the Atlantic.

Forward Vision

The arts component incorporates not only dissemination of the national tongue, with an expanded presence of the language promotion body, but also schemes to help the movement of scholarly educators and researchers.

Protection partnership, initiatives concerning global warming, gender equality and an increased international engagement are expected elements in today's environment.

However, the approach also places significant emphasis it places on assisting democratic values, the continental organization and, in especial, the regional West African group the West African economic bloc.

This will be favorable governmental endorsement for the entity, which is presently facing significant challenges after seeing its 50th anniversary year tainted by the departure of the Sahel nations – the West African nation, the West African state and the Nigerien Republic – whose controlling military regimes have chosen not to follow with its agreement regarding democratic governance and proper administration.

Meanwhile, in a statement aimed similarly at Madrid's domestic audience as its sub-Saharan partners, the foreign ministry declared "supporting the African diaspora and the fight against racism and immigrant hostility are also key priorities".

Eloquent statements of course are only a first step. But in the current negative global atmosphere such language really does distinguish itself.