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Madrid is adopting a markedly separate path from numerous Western nations when it comes to movement regulations and relations toward the continent of Africa.

Whereas countries like the United States, UK, France and Federal Republic of Germany are reducing their international support allocations, the Spanish government stays focused to expanding its involvement, though from a lower starting point.

New Initiatives

Currently, the Spanish capital has been accommodating an AU-supported "world conference on individuals with African heritage". The Madrid African conference will examine corrective fairness and the establishment of a new development fund.

This represents the latest indication of how Madrid's leadership is attempting to strengthen and diversify its engagement with the mainland that lies just a brief span to the southern direction, beyond the Gibraltar passage.

Policy Structure

This past summer International Relations Head the Spanish diplomat initiated a new advisory council of distinguished academic, international relations and arts representatives, over 50 percent of them African, to supervise the implementation of the thorough Spanish-African initiative that his government unveiled at the conclusion of the previous year.

Fresh consular offices in sub-Saharan regions, and partnerships in business and academic are scheduled.

Movement Regulation

The distinction between Spain's approach and that of other Western nations is not just in spending but in attitude and outlook – and nowhere more so than in addressing migration.

Comparable with elsewhere in Europe, Administration Head Pedro Sanchez is exploring approaches to control the entry of unauthorized entrants.

"In our view, the movement dynamic is not only a question of moral principles, unity and respect, but also one of reason," the prime minister commented.

Exceeding 45,000 persons made the perilous sea crossing from the Atlantic African shore to the overseas region of the Canary Islands the previous year. Calculations of those who perished while trying the crossing vary from 1,400 to a astonishing 10,460.

Practical Solutions

Spain's leadership must house fresh migrants, evaluate their applications and handle their incorporation into wider society, whether short-term or more permanent.

Nonetheless, in rhetoric noticeably distinct from the confrontational statements that comes from many European capitals, the Spanish administration openly acknowledges the difficult financial circumstances on the region in the West African region that compel individuals to jeopardize their safety in the endeavor to achieve Europe.

Additionally, it strives to transcend simply saying "no" to recent entrants. Conversely, it is designing original solutions, with a promise to foster movements of people that are safe, orderly and regular and "mutually beneficial".

Economic Partnerships

While traveling to the West African nation recently, Madrid's representative stressed the participation that migrants make to the national finances.

Spain's leadership finances training schemes for unemployed youth in states like the West African country, notably for undocumented individuals who have been sent back, to support them in establishing workable employment options in their homeland.

Additionally, it enlarged a "cyclical relocation" initiative that gives West Africans short-term visas to enter Spanish territory for defined timeframes of periodic labor, mostly in cultivation, and then come home.

Policy Significance

The basic concept guiding the Spanish approach is that Spain, as the EU member state closest to the mainland, has an crucial domestic priority in the continent's advancement toward inclusive and sustainable development, and tranquility and protection.

The core justification might seem apparent.

Yet of course history had taken the Iberian state down a distinctly separate route.

Besides a few Maghreb footholds and a compact tropical possession – currently sovereign the Gulf of Guinea country – its colonial expansion in the historical period had mostly been oriented overseas.

Future Outlook

The cultural dimension includes not only promotion of the Spanish language, with an expanded presence of the Spanish cultural organization, but also schemes to assist the mobility of educational instructors and researchers.

Security co-operation, measures regarding environmental shifts, gender equality and an increased international engagement are unsurprising components in contemporary circumstances.

Nonetheless, the strategy also puts notable focus it allocates for assisting democratic values, the African Union and, in particular, the regional West African group the West African economic bloc.

This will be positive official support for the latter, which is presently facing significant challenges after observing its five-decade milestone spoiled by the departure of the Sahel nations – the Sahel country, the West African state and Niger – whose governing armed forces have chosen not to follow with its protocol on democracy and good governance.

Meanwhile, in a statement targeted as much at Madrid's domestic audience as its continental allies, the external affairs department said "helping persons of African origin and the fight against racism and xenophobia are also crucial objectives".

Eloquent statements of course are only a first step. But in the current negative global atmosphere such discourse really does appear distinctive.