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Spain is charting a distinctly different direction from several developed states when it comes to migration policies and cooperation with the African continent.

While nations including the USA, United Kingdom, France and Germany are reducing their foreign assistance funding, Madrid remains committed to increasing its involvement, albeit from a lower starting point.

Recent Developments

This week, the capital city has been accommodating an AU-supported "world conference on people of African descent". The Madrid African conference will discuss reparative equity and the formation of a fresh assistance program.

This represents the newest evidence of how Madrid's leadership is attempting to strengthen and expand its cooperation with the continent that lies just a few kilometres to the southern direction, over the Mediterranean crossing.

Policy Structure

In July External Affairs Minister Madrid's top envoy initiated a new advisory council of prominent intellectual, diplomatic and heritage experts, over 50 percent of them from Africa, to monitor the implementation of the comprehensive Spanish-African initiative that his government released at the end of last year.

Additional diplomatic missions south of the Sahara, and cooperative ventures in enterprise and academic are arranged.

Migration Management

The distinction between Spain's approach and that of different European countries is not just in funding but in attitude and philosophy – and especially noticeable than in addressing migration.

Similar to different EU nations, Administration Head the Spanish premier is seeking methods to manage 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 rationality," the administration head stated.

Exceeding 45,000 persons undertook the dangerous ocean journey from West African coastline to the island territory of the Canaries recently. Calculations of those who perished while making the attempt extend from 1,400 to a astonishing 10,460.

Workable Approaches

The Spanish administration needs to shelter fresh migrants, evaluate their applications and handle their incorporation into larger population, whether transient or more long-lasting.

However, in language markedly different from the adversarial communication that comes from numerous EU governments, the Madrid leadership openly acknowledges the hard economic realities on the region in Western Africa that force persons to jeopardize their safety in the attempt to attain EU territory.

And it is trying to exceed simply refusing entry to recent entrants. Instead, it is creating innovative options, with a pledge to promote movements of people that are safe, organized and regular and "mutually beneficial".

Economic Partnerships

During his visit to the West African nation last year, the Spanish leader highlighted the input that foreign workers provide for the Spanish economy.

The Spanish government supports educational programs for unemployed youth in nations including Senegal, especially for unauthorized persons who have been returned, to assist them in creating workable employment options in their native country.

And it has expanded a "circular migration" scheme that offers persons from the region limited-duration authorizations to come to Spain for limited periods of temporary employment, mostly in cultivation, and then go back.

Policy Significance

The core principle guiding the Spanish approach is that the European country, as the European country nearest to the continent, has an crucial domestic priority in the continent's advancement toward equitable and enduring progress, and stability and safety.

That basic rationale might seem evident.

However history had taken the Iberian state down a noticeably unique course.

Besides a few Maghreb footholds and a compact tropical possession – today's independent the Central African nation – its imperial growth in the 1500s and 1600s had mostly been oriented overseas.

Future Outlook

The arts component includes not only promotion of the Spanish language, with an enhanced representation of the language promotion body, but also schemes to assist the transfer of educational instructors and researchers.

Security co-operation, measures regarding environmental shifts, women's empowerment and an expanded diplomatic presence are unsurprising components in today's environment.

Nevertheless, the strategy also places significant emphasis it allocates for backing democratic principles, the African Union and, in specific, the West African regional organization Ecowas.

This constitutes positive official support for the organization, which is now experiencing substantial difficulties after observing its five-decade milestone marred by the departure of the Sahel nations – Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – whose governing armed forces have declined to adhere with its agreement regarding democratic governance and proper administration.

Concurrently, in a statement targeted as much at Spain's internal population as its African collaborators, the foreign ministry said "supporting the African diaspora and the battle against prejudice and xenophobia are also essential focuses".

Fine words of course are only a first step. But in contemporary pessimistic worldwide environment such discourse really does stand out.