Spain's Radically Different Method to Movement from the African Continent

The Spanish government is pursuing a distinctly different course from many European countries when it comes to migration policies and engagement with the African continent.

While countries like the USA, UK, French Republic and Federal Republic of Germany are cutting back their development aid budgets, the Spanish government stays focused to increasing its participation, though from a modest foundation.

Current Programs

Recently, the Spanish capital has been hosting an African Union-backed "world conference on persons of African origin". The Madrid African conference will explore restorative justice and the formation of a fresh assistance program.

This represents the newest evidence of how the Spanish administration is seeking to deepen and expand its cooperation with the continent that rests only a brief span to the south, across the Straits of Gibraltar.

Strategic Framework

During summer Foreign Minister Madrid's top envoy launched a new advisory council of renowned scholarly, diplomatic and arts representatives, the majority of them of African origin, to supervise the delivery of the comprehensive Madrid-Africa plan that his government unveiled at the end of last year.

Fresh consular offices below the Sahara desert, and partnerships in business and learning are planned.

Migration Management

The difference between Madrid's strategy and that of other Western nations is not just in spending but in tone and philosophy – and nowhere more so than in addressing immigration.

Similar to other European locations, Administration Head the Spanish premier is looking for ways to manage the entry of unauthorized entrants.

"For us, the migratory phenomenon is not only a issue of humanitarian values, unity and respect, but also one of rationality," the government leader said.

More than 45,000 individuals attempted the hazardous maritime passage from Africa's west coast to the Spanish archipelago of the Atlantic islands last year. Approximations of those who died while trying the crossing vary from 1,400 to a astonishing 10,460.

Practical Solutions

Spain's leadership must house recent entrants, review their cases and handle their incorporation into larger population, whether short-term or more long-lasting.

Nevertheless, in rhetoric markedly different from the confrontational statements that comes from numerous EU governments, the Spanish administration publicly recognizes the difficult financial circumstances on the region in West Africa that compel individuals to endanger themselves in the effort to reach the European continent.

Additionally, it strives to exceed simply refusing entry to recent entrants. Rather, it is developing creative alternatives, with a pledge to encourage population flows that are protected, orderly and routine and "mutually beneficial".

Commercial Cooperation

On his trip to the West African nation recently, the Spanish leader emphasized the input that migrants provide for the Spanish economy.

The Spanish government finances educational programs for unemployed youth in countries such as the West African country, particularly for undocumented individuals who have been repatriated, to assist them in creating sustainable income sources in their homeland.

Additionally, it enlarged a "rotational movement" programme that offers individuals from West Africa limited-duration authorizations to arrive in the Iberian nation for limited periods of seasonal work, mainly in agriculture, and then come home.

Geopolitical Relevance

The fundamental premise supporting Madrid's outreach is that the Iberian nation, as the European country most proximate to the mainland, has an essential self interest in the continent's advancement toward inclusive and sustainable development, and peace and security.

The core justification might seem obvious.

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

Other than a few Maghreb footholds and a minor equatorial territory – today's independent the Central African nation – its imperial growth in the 1500s and 1600s had primarily been focused overseas.

Future Outlook

The arts component incorporates not only promotion of the Spanish language, with an increased footprint of the Spanish cultural organization, but also programmes to assist the transfer of educational instructors and researchers.

Defense collaboration, measures regarding environmental shifts, female advancement and an increased international engagement are unsurprising components in contemporary circumstances.

Nevertheless, the strategy also puts notable focus it places on supporting democratic ideas, the pan-African body and, in particular, the West African regional organization the West African economic bloc.

This will be favorable governmental endorsement for the latter, which is currently under severe pressure after witnessing its half-century celebration tainted by the walk-out of the Sahel nations – Burkina Faso, the West African state and the Nigerien Republic – whose controlling military regimes have declined to adhere with its protocol on democracy and effective leadership.

Meanwhile, in a statement aimed similarly at Spain's internal population as its sub-Saharan partners, the international relations office declared "assisting the African community abroad and the fight against racism and anti-foreigner sentiment are also key priorities".

Fine words of course are only a initial phase. But in today's sour international climate such language really does stand out.