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Madrid is adopting a markedly separate path from many European countries when it comes to movement regulations and cooperation with the African mainland.

Whereas states such as the USA, United Kingdom, France and Federal Republic of Germany are reducing their development aid budgets, the Spanish government remains committed to expanding its participation, albeit from a reduced baseline.

Recent Developments

Recently, the Madrid has been welcoming an AU-supported "world conference on persons of African origin". The African diaspora summit will discuss restorative justice and the formation of a innovative support mechanism.

This represents the latest indication of how the Spanish administration is seeking to deepen and diversify its engagement with the mainland that rests only a brief span to the southern direction, over the Mediterranean crossing.

Strategic Framework

During summer Foreign Minister Madrid's top envoy initiated a fresh consultative body of distinguished academic, foreign service and heritage experts, the majority of them of African origin, to monitor the delivery of the detailed Madrid-Africa plan that his administration published at the end of last year.

Additional diplomatic missions below the Sahara desert, and cooperative ventures in enterprise and learning are arranged.

Immigration Control

The contrast between the Spanish method and that of other Western nations is not just in spending but in attitude and mindset – and especially noticeable than in dealing with population movement.

Similar to elsewhere in Europe, Prime Minister the Spanish premier is seeking methods to control the influx of unauthorized entrants.

"For us, the migratory phenomenon is not only a question of moral principles, unity and dignity, but also one of reason," the prime minister commented.

More than 45,000 people made the perilous sea crossing from Africa's west coast to the island territory of the Canary Islands recently. Approximations of those who lost their lives while trying the crossing vary from 1,400 to a overwhelming 10,460.

Effective Measures

Madrid's government has to accommodate recent entrants, review their cases and handle their incorporation into larger population, whether transient or more enduring.

However, in language markedly different from the hostile messaging that comes from several Western administrations, the Spanish administration openly acknowledges the difficult financial circumstances on the ground in Western Africa that compel individuals to endanger themselves in the endeavor to achieve Europe.

And it is trying to move beyond simply refusing entry to recent entrants. Instead, it is developing creative alternatives, with a commitment to foster movements of people that are protected, organized and regular and "reciprocally advantageous".

Commercial Cooperation

During his visit to the West African nation last year, Sanchez stressed the contribution that foreign workers make to the Spanish economy.

Madrid's administration finances training schemes for jobless young people in nations including the Senegalese Republic, especially for irregular migrants who have been returned, to assist them in creating sustainable income sources back home.

Furthermore, it increased a "rotational movement" scheme that offers West Africans temporary permits to enter Spanish territory for defined timeframes of periodic labor, mainly in agriculture, and then come home.

Policy Significance

The core principle supporting Madrid's outreach is that Spain, as the EU member state closest to the mainland, has an vital national concern in the continent's advancement toward inclusive and sustainable development, and peace and security.

This fundamental reasoning might seem evident.

Yet of course the past had directed Spain down a noticeably unique course.

Apart from a several North African presences and a small tropical outpost – today's independent the Central African nation – its territorial acquisition in the 1500s and 1600s had primarily been focused across the Atlantic.

Forward Vision

The cultural dimension includes not only dissemination of the national tongue, with an enhanced representation of the language promotion body, but also initiatives to assist the mobility of scholarly educators and scholars.

Security co-operation, action on climate change, women's empowerment and an enhanced consular representation are predictable aspects in the current climate.

Nonetheless, the strategy also puts notable focus it assigns to assisting democratic values, the African Union and, in particular, the sub-Saharan cooperative body the West African economic bloc.

This constitutes welcome public encouragement for the organization, which is presently facing significant challenges after witnessing its half-century celebration marred by the walk-out of the Sahelian states – the West African nation, the West African state and the Nigerien Republic – whose controlling military regimes have chosen not to follow with its agreement regarding democratic governance and effective leadership.

Concurrently, in a statement aimed similarly at Spain's internal population as its continental allies, the international relations office declared "supporting the African diaspora and the struggle versus discrimination and anti-foreigner sentiment are also crucial objectives".

Fine words of course are only a beginning stage. But in today's sour international climate such terminology really does appear distinctive.