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Madrid is adopting a noticeably unique direction from several European countries when it comes to migration policies and relations toward the African mainland.

Whereas countries like the United States, United Kingdom, French Republic and Federal Republic of Germany are reducing their foreign assistance funding, the Spanish government stays focused to enhancing its participation, albeit from a modest foundation.

Recent Developments

This week, the capital city has been welcoming an African Union-backed "international gathering on people of African descent". The Madrid African conference will discuss corrective fairness and the establishment of a innovative support mechanism.

This constitutes the newest evidence of how Spain's socialist-led government is working to enhance and expand its cooperation with the continent that sits merely a few kilometres to the south, beyond the Gibraltar passage.

Strategic Framework

This past summer International Relations Head José Manuel Albares established a recent guidance panel of renowned scholarly, international relations and cultural figures, the majority of them from Africa, to oversee the execution of the comprehensive Spanish-African initiative that his administration published at the close of the prior year.

Fresh consular offices in sub-Saharan regions, and collaborations in business and academic are planned.

Migration Management

The contrast between Madrid's strategy and that of other Western nations is not just in spending but in tone and outlook – and particularly evident than in dealing with migration.

Comparable with elsewhere in Europe, Administration Head the Spanish premier is exploring approaches to control the influx of unauthorized entrants.

"From our perspective, the migratory phenomenon is not only a question of moral principles, mutual support and dignity, but also one of logic," the government leader said.

Over 45,000 people undertook the dangerous ocean journey from the Atlantic African shore to the overseas region of the Canary Islands recently. Approximations of those who died while making the attempt range between 1,400 to a astonishing 10,460.

Effective Measures

Spain's leadership has to accommodate recent entrants, evaluate their applications and handle their incorporation into wider society, whether transient or more long-lasting.

Nevertheless, in rhetoric markedly different from the hostile messaging that comes from several Western administrations, the Sanchez government publicly recognizes the hard economic realities on the ground in Western Africa that force persons to endanger themselves in the attempt to attain the European continent.

And it is trying to transcend simply saying "no" to recent entrants. Conversely, it is developing creative alternatives, with a pledge to promote population flows that are protected, organized and regular and "jointly profitable".

Financial Collaboration

On his trip to the Mauritanian Republic recently, Madrid's representative emphasized the input that migrants contribute to the national finances.

Madrid's administration supports educational programs for unemployed youth in countries such as the West African country, particularly for irregular migrants who have been repatriated, to help them develop workable employment options in their native country.

Additionally, it enlarged a "cyclical relocation" scheme that provides West Africans short-term visas to arrive in the Iberian nation for defined timeframes of seasonal work, mostly in cultivation, and then come home.

Geopolitical Relevance

The core principle supporting the Spanish approach is that the Iberian nation, as the EU member state most proximate to the region, has an crucial domestic priority in the region's development toward comprehensive and lasting growth, and peace and security.

That basic rationale might seem evident.

However previous eras had guided the Iberian state down a noticeably unique course.

Besides a limited Mediterranean outposts and a minor equatorial territory – today's independent the Central African nation – its colonial expansion in the 1500s and 1600s had mainly been directed across the Atlantic.

Future Outlook

The heritage aspect includes not only promotion of the Spanish language, with an increased footprint of the Cervantes Institute, but also initiatives to help the mobility of academic teachers and investigators.

Defense collaboration, initiatives concerning global warming, women's empowerment and an enhanced consular representation are unsurprising components in today's environment.

Nonetheless, the plan also puts notable focus it allocates for backing democratic principles, the continental organization and, in specific, the regional West African group the Economic Community of West African States.

This represents positive official support for the entity, which is now experiencing substantial difficulties after observing its five-decade milestone marred by the departure of the Sahel nations – the Sahel country, the Malian Republic and the Nigerien Republic – whose ruling military juntas have declined to adhere with its agreement regarding democratic governance and good governance.

Concurrently, in a message directed equally toward Spain's internal population as its continental allies, the foreign ministry declared "helping persons of African origin and the fight against racism and xenophobia are also crucial objectives".

Eloquent statements of course are only a initial phase. But in contemporary pessimistic worldwide environment such terminology really does appear distinctive.