Madrid’s radically different approach to African migration

Spain goes against the prevailing political mood among Western countries when it comes to immigration and policies related to the African continent.

While the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany reduce their development aid budgets, Madrid remains committed to continuing expansion, albeit from a lower starting point.

This week, the Spanish capital is hosting a “global conference on people of African descent” supported by the African Union. AfroMadrid2025 will discuss restorative justice and the creation of a new development fund.

It is just the latest sign of how Spain’s Socialist-led government is seeking to deepen and diversify its engagement with the continent and its close neighbor just a few kilometers to the south, across the Strait of Gibraltar.

In July, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albarez established a new advisory council comprising prominent intellectual, diplomatic and cultural figures, more than half of whom are African, to monitor the implementation of the detailed Spanish Africa strategy published by his government at the end of last year.

New sub-Saharan embassies, business and education partnerships are planned.

The contrast between Spain’s approach and that of others in the West lies not only in spending, but in tone and mentality – most evident in dealing with immigration.

As elsewhere in Europe, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is looking for ways to contain the influx of irregular arrivals.

Like other centre-left and centre-right leaders, he finds himself facing an electoral challenge from the far right, driven largely by some voters’ concerns about immigration, with the hardline Vox party in parliament and routinely coming in third in opinion polls.

In July, additional security forces had to be deployed against racist thugs roaming the streets of Torre-Pacheco, in the Murcia region – where many Africans work in the thriving horticulture sector – after three Moroccans were accused of beating a pensioner.

While the opposition conservative People’s Party remains pro-some immigration, but for cultural reasons wants to prioritize Latin Americans rather than Africans, the Vox Party was more extreme.

In response to the Murcia incident, Fox called for tough action against immigrants in lower-skilled jobs. The message largely targeted Africans working in fruit and vegetable production, which were now critical to the economy of southern Spain.

But for the government, immigration presents challenges that are as practical as they are political.

More than 45,000 people made the dangerous sea crossing from the west coast of Africa to the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands last year. Estimates of those who died making the attempt range from 1,400 to 10,460 people.

Others make a shorter trip across the Strait of Gibraltar or the Mediterranean to land on Andalusian beaches or try to scramble over the border fence in Ceuta and Melilla, the two Spanish cities on the North African coast.

The Spanish administration has to assimilate the new arrivals, process their requests and manage their assimilation into the wider society, whether temporary or long-term.

However, in language markedly different from the bellicose messages coming out of many European capitals, the Sánchez government openly acknowledges the difficult economic reality on the ground in West Africa that drives people to risk their lives trying to reach Europe.

She tries to go beyond simply saying “no” to newcomers. Instead, it is developing creative alternatives, with the promise of promoting safe, orderly, regular and “mutually beneficial” movements of people.

During his trip to Mauritania last year, Sanchez stressed the contribution that migrants make to the Spanish economy.

The Prime Minister said: “For us, the phenomenon of migration is not only a matter of moral principles, solidarity and dignity, but also a matter of rationality.”

The Spanish government funds training programs for unemployed youth in countries like Senegal, especially for returned illegal immigrants, to help them develop new, viable livelihoods in their home country.

It also expanded the “circular migration” program, which gives West African citizens short-term visas to come to Spain for limited periods of seasonal work, especially in agriculture, and then return.

These issues were at the heart of the agenda when Sanchez visited Senegal, Gambia and Mauritania in August last year.

A circular migration agreement has been in place with the former since 2021, but similar agreements with the Mauritanian and Gambian governments have since followed.

The fundamental reason for this unique approach has been set out in detail in the Spanish-African Ministry of Foreign Affairs Strategy. This argues that Europe and Africa “form part of the same geopolitical space.”

But managing migration was just one motivation behind the Spanish decision to focus on building relations with Africa – and supporting a broader social and cultural agenda.

The basic premise underlying the Madrid Outreach is that Spain, as the European country closest to the continent, has a fundamental self-interest in Africa’s progress towards inclusive and sustainable development, peace and security.

This basic logic may seem obvious.

However, of course, history took Spain down a completely different path.

With the exception of a few Maghreb footholds and a small equatorial outpost – today’s independent Equatorial Guinea – its colonial expansion in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was mainly directed across the Atlantic.

Over recent decades, European and Middle Eastern affairs have tended to dominate Madrid’s foreign policy priorities, while the main beneficiaries of its development support have been the countries of its vast former empire in Central and South America.

However, the past few years have seen the Sánchez government lead a fundamental expansion of expectations.

No sooner had Paris been installed as foreign minister in July 2021 than he launched a restructuring of his ministry, in part to strengthen its engagement not only with Latin America but also with the Sahel and North Africa.

Emphasis on the broader geographical focus came with the Development Cooperation Plan for 2024-2027, which for the first time identified West Africa, including the Sahel, as one of three priority regions for assistance, along with Central and South America.

Spain’s strategy in Africa places great emphasis not only on economic sectors such as infrastructure, digitalization and energy transition but also particularly on education and youth employment.

The cultural dimension includes not only the promotion of the Spanish language, with an expanded presence of the Cervantes Institute, but also programs to aid the mobility of academic teachers and researchers.

Security cooperation, action on climate change, women’s empowerment, and an expanded diplomatic presence are all unsurprising in today’s environment.

However, the strategy also overtly focuses on supporting democratic ideas, the African Union and, in particular, the Regional Organization for West Africa (ECOWAS).

This will be good popular encouragement for the latter, which is currently under intense pressure after the fiftieth anniversary of its founding witnessed the withdrawal of the Sahel states – Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – whose ruling military juntas refused to comply with its Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance.

Meanwhile, in a message to the local audience in Madrid and its sub-Saharan partners, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that “supporting the African diaspora and combating racism and xenophobia are also key priorities.”

Beautiful words, of course, are only the first step. But in light of the bad international climate we are living in today, such language really stands out.

Paul Melly is a consulting fellow in the Africa Program at Chatham House in London.