Abstract

The introduction to the debate in the working group on immigration and subsidiarity highlight the aspects of the theme that deserve special mention. After defining the scope of horizontal subsidiarity, the paper clarifies that in the concrete experience of migrant integration, subsidiarity encompasses the contribution of individuals as well as of social organisations, both profit and non-profit, and in particular, when it comes to non-profit contributions, some institutions of the third sector. The institutions of the third sector carry out their activities, defined as «of general interest» in Article 118(4) of the Italian constitution and in the «Code of the Third Sector», in a number of fields in which the Italian legal system protects the foreigners’ status. The increasingly favourable attitude of legislation towards the cooperation between public administration and third sector institutions is clearly reflected in legislative provisions regulating co-programming («co-programmazione ») and co-planning («co-progettazione») of measures: this topic has come to the spotlight thanks to the 2018 reform and is also one of the hardest tasks to be put into practice.