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The Spanish government is pursuing a distinctly different path from numerous Western nations when it comes to migration policies and cooperation with the continent of Africa.

Whereas countries like the USA, United Kingdom, France and Germany are cutting back their foreign assistance funding, the Spanish government stays focused to enhancing its engagement, albeit from a reduced baseline.

Current Programs

This week, the Spanish capital has been accommodating an continent-endorsed "world conference on people of African descent". The African diaspora summit will explore restorative justice and the establishment of a new development fund.

This demonstrates the most recent sign of how Madrid's leadership is attempting to strengthen and expand its cooperation with the region that lies just a short distance to the southern direction, beyond the Gibraltar passage.

Governmental Approach

In July International Relations Head the Spanish diplomat launched a recent guidance panel of renowned scholarly, foreign service and arts representatives, over 50 percent of them African, to monitor the delivery of the comprehensive Madrid-Africa plan that his government unveiled at the conclusion of the previous year.

Additional diplomatic missions in sub-Saharan regions, and partnerships in enterprise and education are scheduled.

Migration Management

The contrast between Spain's approach and that of different European countries is not just in spending but in attitude and outlook – and particularly evident than in dealing with migration.

Like other European locations, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is exploring approaches to manage the entry of undocumented migrants.

"For us, the immigration situation is not only a matter of ethical standards, solidarity and respect, but also one of rationality," the prime minister stated.

More than 45,000 individuals attempted the hazardous maritime passage from West African coastline to the Spanish archipelago of the Canaries recently. Estimates of those who died while undertaking the journey range between 1,400 to a overwhelming 10,460.

Effective Measures

Spain's leadership needs to shelter new arrivals, evaluate their applications and oversee their integration into larger population, whether temporary or more permanent.

However, in terminology distinctly separate from the confrontational statements that comes from many European capitals, the Madrid leadership publicly recognizes the hard economic realities on the ground in the West African region that force persons to jeopardize their safety in the endeavor to achieve EU territory.

Additionally, it strives to move beyond simply refusing entry to incoming migrants. Conversely, it is developing creative alternatives, with a promise to foster population flows that are safe, organized and standardized and "jointly profitable".

Economic Partnerships

While traveling to the West African nation the previous year, Sanchez highlighted the input that migrants provide for the Iberian economic system.

Madrid's administration supports educational programs for jobless young people in states like the Senegalese Republic, particularly for undocumented individuals who have been sent back, to help them develop viable new livelihoods in their native country.

And it has expanded a "cyclical relocation" programme that offers West Africans limited-duration authorizations to come to Spain for restricted durations of temporary employment, mostly in cultivation, and then come home.

Geopolitical Relevance

The basic concept supporting the Spanish approach is that Spain, as the continental nation nearest to the continent, has an vital national concern in the continent's advancement toward comprehensive and lasting growth, and peace and security.

The core justification might seem apparent.

Yet of course the past had directed Spain down a quite different path.

Other than a few Maghreb footholds and a small tropical outpost – currently sovereign the Gulf of Guinea country – its colonial expansion in the 1500s and 1600s had mainly been directed across the Atlantic.

Forward Vision

The heritage aspect includes not only promotion of the Spanish language, with an enhanced representation of the Spanish cultural organization, but also schemes to assist the movement of scholarly educators and investigators.

Security co-operation, action on climate change, gender equality and an enhanced consular representation are expected elements in contemporary circumstances.

Nevertheless, the plan also places significant emphasis it places on backing democratic principles, the African Union and, in specific, the regional West African group the Economic Community of West African States.

This constitutes favorable governmental endorsement for the latter, which is presently facing significant challenges after observing its five-decade milestone marred by the withdrawal of the Sahel nations – the Sahel country, the Malian Republic and Niger – whose controlling military regimes have refused to comply with its agreement regarding democratic governance and effective leadership.

Concurrently, in a statement aimed similarly at Madrid's domestic audience as its sub-Saharan partners, the external affairs department stated "supporting the African diaspora 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 appear distinctive.