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Madrid is adopting a distinctly different direction from several Western nations when it comes to immigration strategies and relations toward the African mainland.

Whereas nations including the US, UK, France and Federal Republic of Germany are reducing their development aid budgets, Madrid stays focused to enhancing its involvement, even from a reduced baseline.

New Initiatives

Currently, the Madrid has been accommodating an African Union-backed "world conference on people of African descent". The Madrid African conference will examine reparative equity and the establishment of a fresh assistance program.

This demonstrates the newest evidence of how Madrid's leadership is attempting to strengthen and expand its cooperation with the continent that sits merely a brief span to the south, beyond the Gibraltar passage.

Governmental Approach

This past summer Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares established a new advisory council of prominent intellectual, diplomatic and arts representatives, more than half of them African, to monitor the implementation of the detailed Spain-Africa strategy that his government published at the conclusion of the previous year.

Additional diplomatic missions below the Sahara desert, and partnerships in commerce and education are scheduled.

Immigration Control

The distinction between Madrid's strategy and that of different European countries is not just in expenditure but in tone and mindset – and especially noticeable than in handling migration.

Comparable with different EU nations, Prime Minister Madrid's chief executive is exploring approaches to control the influx of undocumented migrants.

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

Over 45,000 individuals undertook the dangerous ocean journey from Africa's west coast to the overseas region of the Canary Islands the previous year. Estimates of those who died while undertaking the journey range between 1,400 to a overwhelming 10,460.

Practical Solutions

Spain's leadership has to accommodate recent entrants, evaluate their applications and handle their incorporation into larger population, whether temporary or more enduring.

Nonetheless, in rhetoric noticeably distinct from the hostile messaging that originates from numerous EU governments, the Sanchez government publicly recognizes the hard economic realities on the region in Western Africa that compel individuals to risk their lives in the effort to reach Europe.

Furthermore, it attempts to exceed simply refusing entry to incoming migrants. Instead, it is designing original solutions, with a pledge to encourage human mobility that are safe, orderly and routine and "jointly profitable".

Commercial Cooperation

While traveling to the Mauritanian Republic last year, Sanchez stressed the participation that migrants provide for the national finances.

The Spanish government supports training schemes for unemployed youth in states like the West African country, especially for irregular migrants who have been repatriated, to support them in establishing viable new livelihoods back home.

Additionally, it enlarged a "rotational movement" programme that offers West Africans short-term visas to come to Spain for restricted durations of periodic labor, mostly in cultivation, and then go back.

Policy Significance

The fundamental premise underlying the Spanish approach is that the European country, as the EU member state most proximate to the mainland, has an vital national concern in the continent's advancement toward comprehensive and lasting growth, and stability and safety.

That basic rationale might seem apparent.

Nevertheless previous eras had guided the Iberian state down a quite different path.

Besides a limited Mediterranean outposts and a compact tropical possession – presently autonomous the Gulf of Guinea country – its territorial acquisition in the 1500s and 1600s had mainly been directed across the Atlantic.

Future Outlook

The cultural dimension encompasses not only dissemination of the national tongue, with an increased footprint of the Spanish cultural organization, but also programmes to assist the mobility of educational instructors and investigators.

Protection partnership, initiatives concerning global warming, gender equality and an expanded diplomatic presence are predictable aspects in today's environment.

Nevertheless, the approach also lays very public stress it assigns to supporting democratic ideas, the African Union and, in especial, the sub-Saharan cooperative body the Economic Community of West African States.

This represents welcome public encouragement for the organization, which is presently facing significant challenges after observing its five-decade milestone tainted by the departure of the Sahelian states – Burkina Faso, the West African state and the Nigerien Republic – whose ruling military juntas have declined to adhere with its agreement regarding democratic governance and good governance.

Concurrently, in a communication directed equally toward Spain's internal population as its African collaborators, the international relations office said "supporting the African diaspora and the battle against prejudice and anti-foreigner sentiment are also crucial objectives".

Eloquent statements of course are only a initial phase. But in today's sour international climate such terminology really does distinguish itself.