🔗 Share this article

Spain is charting a noticeably unique direction from many Western nations when it comes to movement regulations and cooperation with the African mainland.

Whereas states such as the US, Britain, France and Germany are slashing their international support allocations, Spain stays focused to increasing its participation, albeit from a lower starting point.

New Initiatives

Currently, the Spanish capital has been welcoming an AU-supported "world conference on individuals with African heritage". The Madrid African conference will examine reparative equity and the creation of a new development fund.

This represents the most recent sign of how Madrid's leadership is seeking to deepen and diversify its engagement with the continent that lies just a brief span to the south, over the Mediterranean crossing.

Strategic Framework

In July External Affairs Minister José Manuel Albares initiated a recent guidance panel of prominent intellectual, diplomatic and cultural figures, over 50 percent of them of African origin, to oversee the delivery of the comprehensive Spain-Africa strategy that his leadership released at the conclusion of the previous year.

Additional diplomatic missions below the Sahara desert, and collaborations in business and learning are scheduled.

Migration Management

The contrast between Spain's approach and that of others in the West is not just in funding but in tone and mindset – and particularly evident than in dealing with immigration.

Comparable with elsewhere in Europe, Government Leader Pedro Sanchez is looking for ways to contain the entry of irregular arrivals.

"In our view, the movement dynamic is not only a issue of humanitarian values, solidarity and respect, but also one of rationality," the administration head commented.

More than 45,000 individuals made the perilous sea crossing from Africa's west coast to the overseas region of the Atlantic islands the previous year. Approximations of those who died while making the attempt range between 1,400 to a overwhelming 10,460.

Effective Measures

Madrid's government has to accommodate recent entrants, process their claims and handle their incorporation into wider society, whether temporary or more permanent.

Nevertheless, in rhetoric markedly different from the confrontational statements that emanates from many European capitals, the Sanchez government openly acknowledges the hard economic realities on the territory in the West African region that push people to endanger themselves in the endeavor to achieve the European continent.

And it is trying to move beyond simply denying access to recent entrants. Conversely, it is developing creative alternatives, with a pledge to foster human mobility that are safe, organized and routine and "reciprocally advantageous".

Commercial Cooperation

While traveling to the Mauritanian Republic the previous year, the Spanish leader stressed the contribution that migrants make to the Iberian economic system.

Spain's leadership supports skill development initiatives for unemployed youth in countries such as the West African country, notably for irregular migrants who have been returned, to assist them in creating sustainable income sources back home.

And it has expanded a "cyclical relocation" initiative that offers persons from the region limited-duration authorizations to arrive in the Iberian nation for defined timeframes of seasonal work, primarily in farming, and then come home.

Geopolitical Relevance

The core principle supporting Madrid's outreach is that the European country, as the EU member state closest to the mainland, has an vital national concern in the region's development toward inclusive and sustainable development, and tranquility and protection.

That basic rationale might seem obvious.

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

Besides a limited Mediterranean outposts and a minor equatorial territory – presently autonomous Equatorial Guinea – its territorial acquisition in the 1500s and 1600s had primarily been focused toward the Americas.

Prospective Direction

The cultural dimension includes not only advancement of Castilian, with an increased footprint of the Cervantes Institute, but also programmes to assist the transfer of academic teachers and investigators.

Security co-operation, action on climate change, female advancement and an increased international engagement are predictable aspects in the current climate.

Nonetheless, the plan also lays very public stress it places on assisting democratic values, the pan-African body and, in particular, the regional West African group the West African economic bloc.

This represents positive official support for the organization, which is now experiencing substantial difficulties after witnessing its half-century celebration marred by the walk-out of the Sahelian states – the Sahel country, Mali and the Nigerien Republic – whose ruling military juntas have refused to comply with its protocol on democracy and effective leadership.

Simultaneously, in a message targeted as much at Madrid's domestic audience as its African collaborators, the foreign ministry said "assisting the African community abroad and the struggle versus discrimination and xenophobia are also essential focuses".

Fine words of course are only a beginning stage. But in the current negative global atmosphere such terminology really does stand out.