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Madrid is adopting a markedly separate path from numerous developed states when it comes to immigration strategies and engagement with the African mainland.

Whereas nations including the US, United Kingdom, France and Germany are slashing their development aid budgets, Spain continues dedicated to enhancing its involvement, albeit from a lower starting point.

New Initiatives

Recently, the capital city has been hosting an AU-supported "world conference on individuals with African heritage". The African diaspora summit will discuss restorative justice and the establishment of a innovative support mechanism.

This represents the latest indication of how the Spanish administration is seeking to deepen and broaden its involvement with the mainland that rests only a short distance to the south, across the Straits of Gibraltar.

Governmental Approach

In July Foreign Minister the Spanish diplomat launched a recent guidance panel of renowned scholarly, foreign service and cultural figures, the majority of them of African origin, to monitor the execution of the detailed Madrid-Africa plan that his leadership published at the close of the prior year.

New embassies below the Sahara desert, and cooperative ventures in commerce and education are planned.

Movement Regulation

The distinction between Madrid's strategy and that of other Western nations is not just in expenditure but in attitude and philosophy – and nowhere more so than in dealing with immigration.

Comparable with other European locations, Prime Minister the Spanish premier is exploring approaches to control the entry of irregular arrivals.

"In our view, the immigration situation is not only a issue of humanitarian values, mutual support and honor, but also one of logic," the administration head commented.

Exceeding 45,000 individuals made the perilous sea crossing from Africa's west coast to the overseas region of the Canary Islands the previous year. Estimates of those who lost their lives while trying the crossing vary from 1,400 to a overwhelming 10,460.

Workable Approaches

Spain's leadership must house fresh migrants, evaluate their applications and oversee their integration into broader community, whether transient or more enduring.

Nevertheless, in terminology markedly different from the confrontational statements that comes from several Western administrations, the Sanchez government publicly recognizes the hard economic realities on the ground in West Africa that compel individuals to risk their lives in the endeavor to achieve Europe.

Furthermore, it attempts to transcend simply denying access to incoming migrants. Conversely, it is designing original solutions, with a commitment to foster human mobility that are secure, organized and routine and "mutually beneficial".

Economic Partnerships

During his visit to the West African nation recently, Madrid's representative stressed the input that immigrants provide for the Iberian economic system.

Spain's leadership finances training schemes for youth without work in states like the West African country, notably for undocumented individuals who have been returned, to help them develop viable new livelihoods in their native country.

Furthermore, it increased a "cyclical relocation" programme that gives persons from the region limited-duration authorizations to arrive in the Iberian nation for defined timeframes of seasonal work, mainly in agriculture, and then come home.

Policy Significance

The basic concept guiding the Spanish approach is that Spain, as the EU member state most proximate to the continent, has an vital national concern in the region's development toward equitable and enduring progress, and stability and safety.

The core justification might seem evident.

However the past had directed Spain down a distinctly separate route.

Apart from a few Maghreb footholds and a small tropical outpost – presently autonomous the Gulf of Guinea country – its imperial growth in the 1500s and 1600s had primarily been focused overseas.

Future Outlook

The heritage aspect includes not only advancement of Castilian, with an increased footprint of the language promotion body, but also initiatives to support the movement of educational instructors and scholars.

Protection partnership, measures regarding environmental shifts, women's empowerment and an enhanced consular representation are unsurprising components in today's environment.

Nonetheless, the approach also places significant emphasis it assigns to supporting democratic ideas, the continental organization and, in particular, the regional West African group the West African economic bloc.

This constitutes positive official support for the latter, which is presently facing significant challenges after observing its five-decade milestone marred by the departure of the Sahelian states – the Sahel country, the West African state and the Nigerien Republic – whose controlling military regimes have chosen not to follow with its protocol on democracy and effective leadership.

Concurrently, in a communication targeted as much at Spain's internal population as its African collaborators, the international relations office said "helping persons of African origin and the fight against racism and anti-foreigner sentiment are also essential focuses".

Impressive rhetoric of course are only a initial phase. But in the current negative global atmosphere such discourse really does distinguish itself.