Abstract
The article analyses the main features of intergovernmental relations (IGR) on immigrant integration in Italy considering reception policies for asylum seekers and economic or family migrants. We study them in a region with an ordinary statute, Piedmont, and in an autonomous province, South Tyrol. First, we find increasing frequency and institutionalisation of IGR. Second, we observe that multilateral interaction prevails in ordinary regions, and bilateral interaction predominates in the autonomous regions. Moreover, IGRs related to asylum seekers appear to be more conflictive than those related to economic and family migrants. This is particularly the case in the ordinary region studied here. We find a poor explanatory performance of hypotheses related to the constitutional structure and the distribution of competency between the central state and regions, whereas party (in)congruence, European integration and salience of identity claims raised by regionalist parties have stronger explanatory power. Issue salience emerges as an additional explanation.