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Madrid is adopting a distinctly different course from numerous Western nations when it comes to movement regulations and cooperation with the African continent.

Although nations including the United States, United Kingdom, French Republic and Germany are slashing their development aid budgets, Madrid stays focused to expanding its participation, even from a modest foundation.

Current Programs

Recently, the capital city has been welcoming an AU-supported "world conference on persons of African origin". The African diaspora summit will discuss restorative justice and the creation of a innovative support mechanism.

This constitutes the most recent sign of how Madrid's leadership is seeking to deepen and expand its cooperation with the continent that rests only a few kilometres to the south, across the Straits of Gibraltar.

Strategic Framework

This past summer External Affairs Minister the Spanish diplomat launched a fresh consultative body of prominent intellectual, foreign service and cultural figures, the majority of them from Africa, to monitor the delivery of the comprehensive Madrid-Africa plan that his administration released at the close of the prior year.

New embassies south of the Sahara, and collaborations in commerce and education are planned.

Migration Management

The difference between Spain's approach and that of different European countries is not just in expenditure but in perspective and philosophy – and particularly evident than in handling immigration.

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

"From our perspective, the movement dynamic is not only a matter of ethical standards, mutual support and dignity, but also one of logic," the government leader commented.

Over 45,000 persons undertook the dangerous ocean journey from the Atlantic African shore to the island territory of the Canary Islands recently. Estimates of those who lost their lives while undertaking the journey range between 1,400 to a staggering 10,460.

Effective Measures

Spain's leadership has to accommodate new arrivals, evaluate their applications and manage their absorption into broader community, whether short-term or more enduring.

However, in rhetoric noticeably distinct from the adversarial communication that originates from many European capitals, the Sanchez government openly acknowledges the hard economic realities on the region in West Africa that compel individuals to risk their lives in the attempt to attain the European continent.

And it is trying to transcend simply saying "no" to new arrivals. Instead, it is designing original solutions, with a commitment to encourage movements of people that are safe, orderly and regular and "jointly profitable".

Financial Collaboration

During his visit to the Mauritanian Republic recently, Madrid's representative stressed the participation that immigrants contribute to the Spanish economy.

Madrid's administration finances training schemes for unemployed youth in nations including Senegal, especially for irregular migrants who have been repatriated, to help them develop viable new livelihoods in their native country.

Additionally, it enlarged a "cyclical relocation" programme that gives West Africans short-term visas to arrive in the Iberian nation for restricted durations of seasonal work, mostly in cultivation, and then return.

Strategic Importance

The fundamental premise guiding Madrid's outreach is that the Iberian nation, as the continental nation most proximate to the continent, has an vital national concern in the region's development toward equitable and enduring progress, and stability and safety.

That basic rationale might seem evident.

Nevertheless the past had directed Spain down a noticeably unique course.

Apart from a limited Mediterranean outposts and a compact tropical possession – currently sovereign the Gulf of Guinea country – its imperial growth in the historical period had primarily been focused across the Atlantic.

Forward Vision

The arts component encompasses not only dissemination of the national tongue, with an expanded presence of the Cervantes Institute, but also schemes to support the transfer of academic teachers and researchers.

Protection partnership, action on climate change, female advancement and an enhanced consular representation are predictable aspects in today's environment.

However, the plan also lays very public stress it places on supporting democratic ideas, the pan-African body and, in specific, the regional West African group Ecowas.

This will be positive official support for the entity, which is currently under severe pressure after witnessing its half-century celebration tainted by the departure of the desert region countries – the West African nation, Mali and Niger – whose ruling military juntas have chosen not to follow with its protocol on democracy and effective leadership.

Concurrently, in a statement directed equally toward the national citizenry as its sub-Saharan partners, the external affairs department stated "helping persons of African origin and the fight against racism and immigrant hostility are also crucial objectives".

Eloquent statements of course are only a first step. But in today's sour international climate such terminology really does stand out.