Abstract

Immigration fluxes in Italy have steadily increased during the past decades, posing new challenges to law-makers whose reaction has been generally too slow. After having recalled the development of national regulation of the phenomenon, the essay focuses on two main questions: the uncertain overlapping of national and regional laws concerning the legal status of immigrants and their rights (due to constitutional post-2001 provisions and Constitutional Court's still ambiguous case-law), and the state-of-art of the different regulations enacted at regional level, analyzed through the lens of a 'basic rights' test and of the 'non-discrimination' principle. The aim is to gauge the potential of regional political autonomy in an increasingly field crucial for the life of local communities as well as for the transformations of the concept of citizenship as well.