This document summarizes research on Spain's "Africa Programme" strategy for managing migration flows from West Africa. It finds that Spain's development cooperation policies may be subordinate to its migration policies and aim to control migratory flows. The research analyzes Spain's Official Development Assistance to African countries, as well as cooperation framework agreements and new "second generation" readmission agreements. It concludes that while Spain's Africa Plans I and II increased aid, the development policies still lack coherence and the aid may finance migration control, representing an instrumentalization of development assistance.

1. SPANISH CASE: THE STRATEGY OF THE
“AFRICAN PROGRAMME”
International Meetings on Readmission Agreements:
Readmission agreements or blackmail to deportations?
Nerea Azkona (Entreculturas - Alboan)
Paris, 27 November 2009

2. 1. Contextualization of the research (1/2)
• Objective: to clarify the coherence between the
cooperation policies and the migration policies of
the Spanish state
• How? Reviewing whether the cooperation policies
are subordinated to the migration policies =>
instrumentalisation of the ODA in favor of migratory
flow control

3. 1. Contextualization of the research (2/2)
• Structure: 1) normative framework of the EU for
migratory policies; 2) the Spain - West Africa case
• Methodology: analysis of: 1) ODA; 2) Framework
Agreements of Migratory Cooperation and Readmission
= New Generation Agreements = Second Generation
Agreements
• Scope of work: Development Policy Coherence (DPC)
=> interested associationism: 1) internalization of
Spanish companies; 2) externalisation of Europe's
Southern border

4. 2. Africa Plan I (2006-09), Africa Plan II (2009-12)
and the “new generation agreements”
• API and APII: tools of political management of the MAEC
• Most important criticisms of API: improvisation
– Causes: 1) mediatic dialogue (sensationalism): 2) political
discourse (opportunism)
• Criticism of APII: absence of African agents
• Criticism of both plans: the incoherence of development
policies between:
– Foreign policy instruments: AP and DP (high-priority
countries)
– Internal (migration) and external (cooperation) policies =>
Objectives 3 of API and 4 of APII

5. 2.1. Africa Plan I and the promotion of cooperation to
manage migratory flows (1/2)
• Introduction of API: 1) causes of migration; 2) consequences
for development; 3) volume of migrants; 4) solutions =>
justification of API
– Causes: Decontextualization of the phenomenon;
endogenous
– Consequences: only negative
– Agents involved: 3 ministries
– Solution: 1) global approach of the EU: a) to fight against
illegal migration; b) to reinforce legal migration; c) to promote
development in the country of origin; 2) principle of joint
responsibility of the countries of origin, transit and destination

6. 2.1. Africa Plan I and the promotion of cooperation to
manage migratory flows (2/2)
• Solutions in three dimensions: 1) internal; 2) bilateral;
3) multilateral
• Lines of action:
– Internal: border controls
– Bilateral: “to achieve greater collaboration with the
countries of origin and transit by means of the
creation of a network of Framework Agreements of
Migratory Cooperation and Readmission”
• Criticisms: strategies to reach the objectives and
evaluation are not identified

7. 2.2. Africa Plan II and the consolidation of the
assotiation with Africa over migration
• Objective: “In the bilateral scope, during the period of validity of the
AP 2009-2012, to ensure the effective application of the bilateral
Agreements of Migratory Cooperation with the countries that have
signed – at the moment, Republic of Guinea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau,
Niger, Cabo Verde and Mali as well as those which are concluded in
future with other African countries”
• Transverse objective: Human rights
• AP: change in Spanish migratory policy with Sub-Saharan Africa; new
category in agreements => advance with respect to the previous ones
(repatriation)

8. 2.3. New or second generation agreements between the
Spanish State and the countries of West Africa (1/2)
• Types of agreements: 1) regulate flows of labor; 2)
regulate readmission; 3) “new generation”
• Difference: “Start from foreign policy to end up in
domestic policy” (Asín, 2008)
• Investigation: Scopes of dialectic => need for DPC
– Countries (source  host)
– Policies (domestic  foreign)
– Agents (academy  civil society  administration)

9. 2.3. New or second generation agreements between the
Spanish State and the countries of West Africa (2/2)
• New Generation Agreements:
– Purpose: To oppose and mitigate irregular migratory
flows by means of international cooperation through
bilateral agreements
– Inspired by the global approach of the EU
– Human rights: Annex [in practice: abandonment of
persons in the desert; conditions in the detention
centers]

10. 3. Conclusions from Development Policy
Coherence
• PAI: the fruit of improvisation, PAII: it has improved;
but, still incoherent
• Increase of the AOD during these years; but. Need
to complete analysis of agreements with analysis of
aid, in case it finances the control of migratory flows
Instrumentalisation of aid?
Interested associationism?

11. THANK YOU!