A Spanish government-sponsored event this week showcased how its center-left government is bucking a Western trend of cracking down on foreign arrivals and cutting international aid.
The AfroMadrid2025 conference was the latest in a series of efforts by the country to deepen its ties with African nations: Madrid has widened a seasonal migration program, is aiming to open a raft of new embassies across the continent, and wants to expand business and education ties.
The push is not limited solely to Africa: In part to address an aging population, Spain has aggressively expanded migration more broadly, with the number of Latin Americans now calling Madrid home having grown more than tenfold over the last quarter-century to more than a million.