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Madrid is adopting a noticeably unique direction from many Western nations when it comes to migration policies and engagement with the continent of Africa.

While nations including the USA, UK, France and Germany are cutting back their development aid budgets, the Spanish government continues dedicated to enhancing its involvement, even from a reduced baseline.

New Initiatives

Recently, the Madrid has been accommodating an continent-endorsed "international gathering on individuals with African heritage". AfroMadrid2025 will discuss reparative equity and the formation of a fresh assistance program.

This represents the latest indication of how Spain's socialist-led government is seeking to deepen and broaden its involvement with the continent that rests only a few kilometres to the south, across the Straits of Gibraltar.

Strategic Framework

This past summer External Affairs Minister José Manuel Albares launched a fresh consultative body of prominent intellectual, foreign service and heritage experts, the majority of them African, to monitor the delivery of the detailed Spanish-African initiative that his administration unveiled at the close of the prior year.

Fresh consular offices in sub-Saharan regions, and collaborations in enterprise and education are arranged.

Migration Management

The difference between Spain's approach and that of others in the West is not just in expenditure but in perspective and outlook – and nowhere more so than in addressing population movement.

Comparable with different EU nations, Prime Minister Madrid's chief executive is exploring approaches to control the entry of undocumented migrants.

"In our view, the immigration situation is not only a question of moral principles, solidarity and respect, but also one of reason," the government leader commented.

Over 45,000 individuals made the perilous sea crossing from West African coastline to the island territory of the Atlantic islands recently. Estimates of those who lost their lives while undertaking the journey vary from 1,400 to a overwhelming 10,460.

Workable Approaches

Madrid's government must house recent entrants, process their claims and manage their absorption into wider society, whether temporary or more enduring.

Nonetheless, in language noticeably distinct from the adversarial communication that emanates from numerous EU governments, the Spanish administration openly acknowledges the hard economic realities on the region in West Africa that compel individuals to risk their lives in the endeavor to achieve EU territory.

Additionally, it strives to exceed simply refusing entry to incoming migrants. Rather, it is creating innovative options, with a commitment to foster population flows that are safe, systematic and routine and "jointly profitable".

Financial Collaboration

During his visit to the West African nation the previous year, the Spanish leader emphasized the contribution that foreign workers provide for the Iberian economic system.

Madrid's administration supports skill development initiatives for unemployed youth in nations including Senegal, especially for unauthorized persons who have been returned, to support them in establishing viable new livelihoods in their homeland.

And it has expanded a "circular migration" programme that gives West Africans short-term visas to arrive in the Iberian nation for limited periods of temporary employment, primarily in farming, and then go back.

Strategic Importance

The basic concept supporting the Spanish approach is that Spain, as the European country most proximate to the region, has an essential self interest in the region's development toward inclusive and sustainable development, and peace and security.

The core justification might seem evident.

Yet of course previous eras had guided the Spanish nation down a quite different path.

Other than a several North African presences and a compact tropical possession – presently autonomous Equatorial Guinea – its territorial acquisition in the 16th and 17th Centuries had mostly been oriented toward the Americas.

Prospective Direction

The cultural dimension incorporates not only promotion of the Spanish language, with an increased footprint of the Cervantes Institute, but also programmes to support the mobility of educational instructors and researchers.

Protection partnership, measures regarding environmental shifts, gender equality and an enhanced consular representation are expected elements in contemporary circumstances.

Nevertheless, the plan also puts notable focus it allocates for backing democratic principles, the pan-African body and, in particular, the sub-Saharan cooperative body the West African economic bloc.

This represents positive official support for the entity, which is now experiencing substantial difficulties after seeing its 50th anniversary year marred by the walk-out of the desert region countries – the Sahel country, the Malian Republic and Niger – whose controlling military regimes have refused to comply with its standard for political freedom and good governance.

Meanwhile, in a message aimed similarly at the national citizenry as its sub-Saharan partners, the external affairs department declared "supporting the African diaspora and the struggle versus discrimination and xenophobia are also essential focuses".

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