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Madrid is adopting a noticeably unique course from numerous developed states when it comes to movement regulations and engagement with the African continent.

While nations including the US, UK, French Republic and Germany are slashing their international support allocations, Spain remains committed to increasing its involvement, though from a reduced baseline.

Current Programs

Currently, the Madrid has been hosting an AU-supported "global summit on persons of African origin". The Madrid African conference will examine restorative justice and the creation of a new development fund.

This constitutes the newest evidence of how Spain's socialist-led government is seeking to deepen and broaden its involvement with the continent that sits merely a few kilometres to the south, beyond the Gibraltar passage.

Governmental Approach

This past summer International Relations Head José Manuel Albares launched a fresh consultative body of renowned scholarly, diplomatic and cultural figures, over 50 percent of them of African origin, to monitor the implementation of the thorough Spain-Africa strategy that his government published at the end of last year.

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

Immigration Control

The distinction between the Spanish method and that of other Western nations is not just in expenditure but in attitude and philosophy – and especially noticeable than in addressing immigration.

Comparable with elsewhere in Europe, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is seeking methods to control the arrival of irregular arrivals.

"From our perspective, the immigration situation is not only a question of moral principles, mutual support and dignity, but also one of rationality," the government leader stated.

Exceeding 45,000 people made the perilous sea crossing from the Atlantic African shore to the overseas region of the Canary Islands the previous year. Estimates of those who perished while trying the crossing vary from 1,400 to a overwhelming 10,460.

Practical Solutions

Madrid's government needs to shelter recent entrants, evaluate their applications and manage their absorption into broader community, whether transient or more enduring.

Nonetheless, in rhetoric markedly different from the adversarial communication that emanates from several Western administrations, the Madrid leadership openly acknowledges the hard economic realities on the territory in the West African region that force persons to endanger themselves in the attempt to attain Europe.

And it is trying to move beyond simply refusing entry to new arrivals. Instead, it is creating innovative options, with a commitment to promote human mobility that are secure, systematic and routine and "jointly profitable".

Economic Partnerships

During his visit to the Mauritanian Republic last year, Madrid's representative stressed the input that foreign workers contribute to the national finances.

Madrid's administration funds skill development initiatives for jobless young people in nations including Senegal, particularly for irregular migrants who have been sent back, to assist them in creating viable new livelihoods back home.

And it has expanded a "cyclical relocation" scheme that provides West Africans temporary permits to come to Spain for limited periods of periodic labor, primarily in farming, and then come home.

Policy Significance

The basic concept guiding the Spanish approach is that Spain, as the European country nearest to the region, has an essential self interest in the continent's advancement toward equitable and enduring progress, and tranquility and protection.

This fundamental reasoning might seem obvious.

Nevertheless history had taken Spain down a quite different path.

Apart from a limited Mediterranean outposts and a minor equatorial territory – today's independent Equatorial Guinea – its colonial expansion in the 16th and 17th Centuries had primarily been focused overseas.

Future Outlook

The cultural dimension incorporates not only dissemination of the national tongue, with an enhanced representation of the Spanish cultural organization, but also schemes to support the mobility of scholarly educators and researchers.

Defense collaboration, action on climate change, female advancement and an increased international engagement are expected elements in today's environment.

However, the approach also places significant emphasis it assigns to backing democratic principles, the pan-African body and, in specific, the sub-Saharan cooperative body the West African economic bloc.

This constitutes favorable governmental endorsement for the latter, which is presently facing significant challenges after seeing its 50th anniversary year tainted by the walk-out of the Sahel nations – the Sahel country, the Malian Republic and the Sahel territory – whose controlling military regimes have declined to adhere with its protocol on democracy and effective leadership.

Concurrently, in a statement directed equally toward Spain's internal population as its sub-Saharan partners, the foreign ministry declared "helping persons of African origin and the struggle versus discrimination and anti-foreigner sentiment are also crucial objectives".

Fine words of course are only a first step. But in the current negative global atmosphere such language really does appear distinctive.