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Madrid is adopting a distinctly different direction from many European countries when it comes to immigration strategies and engagement with the continent of Africa.

While states such as the United States, UK, France and Germany are reducing their international support allocations, the Spanish government remains committed to expanding its participation, even from a lower starting point.

Recent Developments

This week, the Spanish capital has been welcoming an continent-endorsed "world conference on people of African descent". The African diaspora summit will examine restorative justice and the establishment of a innovative support mechanism.

This represents the newest evidence of how Madrid's leadership is attempting to strengthen and broaden its involvement with the region that sits merely a few kilometres to the southern direction, over the Mediterranean crossing.

Governmental Approach

In July International Relations Head Madrid's top envoy launched a recent guidance panel of renowned scholarly, foreign service and arts representatives, over 50 percent of them from Africa, to oversee the execution of the thorough Spanish-African initiative that his government published at the close of the prior year.

New embassies south of the Sahara, and partnerships in business and academic are scheduled.

Migration Management

The difference between Madrid's strategy and that of other Western nations is not just in funding but in attitude and mindset – and especially noticeable than in handling migration.

Like elsewhere in Europe, Government Leader the Spanish premier is exploring approaches to control the arrival of irregular arrivals.

"For us, the immigration situation is not only a question of moral principles, unity and respect, but also one of rationality," the prime minister stated.

More than 45,000 people made the perilous sea crossing from Africa's west coast to the Spanish archipelago of the Atlantic islands the previous year. Calculations of those who died while making the attempt vary from 1,400 to a staggering 10,460.

Practical Solutions

Spain's leadership must house new arrivals, evaluate their applications and oversee their integration into broader community, whether transient or more long-lasting.

However, in terminology distinctly separate from the hostile messaging that originates from numerous EU governments, the Spanish administration openly acknowledges the hard economic realities on the territory in Western Africa that force persons to endanger themselves in the effort to reach the European continent.

Furthermore, it attempts to move beyond simply refusing entry to new arrivals. Conversely, it is creating innovative options, with a promise to promote human mobility that are secure, orderly and regular and "jointly profitable".

Financial Collaboration

On his trip to the West African nation recently, Sanchez stressed the participation that migrants make to the Iberian economic system.

The Spanish government funds educational programs for jobless young people in states like the West African country, particularly for irregular migrants who have been sent back, to support them in establishing viable new livelihoods in their homeland.

Furthermore, it increased a "cyclical relocation" programme that offers West Africans temporary permits to arrive in the Iberian nation for defined timeframes of temporary employment, mainly in agriculture, and then return.

Strategic Importance

The basic concept guiding Madrid's outreach is that Spain, as the European country closest to the continent, has an vital national concern in Africa's progress toward equitable and enduring progress, and peace and security.

The core justification might seem obvious.

Yet of course history had taken Spain down a noticeably unique course.

Other than a limited Mediterranean outposts and a minor equatorial territory – currently sovereign the Gulf of Guinea country – its territorial acquisition in the historical period had mainly been directed across the Atlantic.

Forward Vision

The cultural dimension encompasses not only advancement of Castilian, with an enhanced representation of the language promotion body, but also programmes to support the mobility of academic teachers and investigators.

Security co-operation, measures regarding environmental shifts, female advancement and an increased international engagement are expected elements in contemporary circumstances.

Nonetheless, the strategy also puts notable focus it assigns to assisting democratic values, the pan-African body and, in specific, the regional West African group the West African economic bloc.

This will be favorable governmental endorsement for the latter, which is now experiencing substantial difficulties after observing its five-decade milestone tainted by the walk-out of the desert region countries – Burkina Faso, the Malian Republic and the Nigerien Republic – whose ruling military juntas have refused to comply with its protocol on democracy and effective leadership.

Simultaneously, in a communication targeted as much at the national citizenry as its continental allies, the foreign ministry said "helping persons of African origin and the battle against prejudice and anti-foreigner sentiment are also essential focuses".

Impressive rhetoric of course are only a initial phase. But in contemporary pessimistic worldwide environment such discourse really does appear distinctive.