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Madrid is adopting a distinctly different path from several European countries when it comes to immigration strategies and relations toward the African continent.

Although states such as the United States, United Kingdom, French Republic and Germany are cutting back their foreign assistance funding, Madrid stays focused to increasing its involvement, though from a reduced baseline.

Current Programs

Currently, the capital city has been welcoming an AU-supported "world conference on persons of African origin". The Madrid African conference will examine reparative equity and the formation of a innovative support mechanism.

This represents the newest evidence of how Madrid's leadership is working to enhance and diversify its engagement with the region that sits merely a few kilometres to the south, across the Straits of Gibraltar.

Governmental Approach

This past summer Foreign Minister the Spanish diplomat initiated a recent guidance panel of distinguished academic, international relations and cultural figures, more than half of them of African origin, to supervise the implementation of the detailed Spanish-African initiative that his administration released at the conclusion of the previous year.

Additional diplomatic missions south of the Sahara, and partnerships in enterprise and education are planned.

Migration Management

The contrast between the Spanish method and that of different European countries is not just in expenditure but in tone and mindset – and particularly evident than in addressing population movement.

Like other European locations, Administration Head Pedro Sanchez is looking for ways to control the entry of undocumented migrants.

"For us, the immigration situation is not only a question of moral principles, mutual support and honor, but also one of reason," the prime minister stated.

Over 45,000 persons attempted the hazardous maritime passage from the Atlantic African shore to the overseas region of the Atlantic islands the previous year. Approximations of those who lost their lives while making the attempt extend from 1,400 to a astonishing 10,460.

Practical Solutions

The Spanish administration must house recent entrants, evaluate their applications and manage their absorption into larger population, whether short-term or more permanent.

Nevertheless, in terminology distinctly separate from the confrontational statements that emanates from several Western administrations, the Sanchez government frankly admits the challenging monetary conditions on the territory in Western Africa that push people to risk their lives in the attempt to attain the European continent.

And it is trying to exceed simply denying access to incoming migrants. Instead, it is designing original solutions, with a promise to encourage human mobility that are secure, systematic and regular and "mutually beneficial".

Economic Partnerships

During his visit to Mauritania recently, the Spanish leader highlighted the participation that migrants provide for the Spanish economy.

The Spanish government funds training schemes for unemployed youth in countries such as the Senegalese Republic, notably for undocumented individuals who have been returned, to support them in establishing sustainable income sources in their native country.

And it has expanded a "rotational movement" scheme that offers individuals from West Africa temporary permits to enter Spanish territory for restricted durations of periodic labor, mostly in cultivation, and then go back.

Strategic Importance

The core principle supporting Madrid's outreach is that Spain, as the continental nation most proximate to the region, has an essential self interest in Africa's progress toward equitable and enduring progress, and peace and security.

The core justification might seem evident.

Nevertheless previous eras had guided Spain down a distinctly separate route.

Besides a few Maghreb footholds and a small tropical outpost – currently sovereign Equatorial Guinea – its colonial expansion in the 16th and 17th Centuries had mainly been directed overseas.

Future Outlook

The arts component includes not only dissemination of the national tongue, with an expanded presence of the Cervantes Institute, but also initiatives to help the movement of educational instructors and scholars.

Defense collaboration, initiatives concerning global warming, female advancement and an enhanced consular representation are predictable aspects in the current climate.

However, the strategy also lays very public stress it places on assisting democratic values, the African Union and, in specific, the sub-Saharan cooperative body the Economic Community of West African States.

This will be positive official support for the entity, which is now experiencing substantial difficulties after seeing its 50th anniversary year spoiled by the withdrawal of the desert region countries – Burkina Faso, the West African state and Niger – whose controlling military regimes have refused to comply with its standard for political freedom and proper administration.

Concurrently, in a message aimed similarly at Madrid's domestic audience as its continental allies, the external affairs department stated "supporting the African diaspora and the struggle versus discrimination and immigrant hostility are also essential focuses".

Fine words of course are only a initial phase. But in contemporary pessimistic worldwide environment such language really does appear distinctive.