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This article contributes to the debate on the ‘local governance turn’ by considering a recent immigration context: the Italian case. We analyse integration policies and governance processes in three regions: Lombardy, Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna. The aim is to shed new light on the multi-level governance relations that shape immigrant integration policies, taking into account the interdependencies of the vertical and horizontal dimensions of multi-level governance. The analysis points out the emergence of different multi-level governance arrangements and highlights the relevance of institutional and organisational factors in accounting for local differentiation. General traditions and established public–non-governmental organisation relations in the social policy field, the internal organisation of the regional administration (specialised staff versus general bureaucratic apparatus), and the role of ideology appear to make a difference. The implications of this analysis for multi-level governance scholarship are discussed, emphasising the need for a middle-range theory approach.Points for practitioners: Multi-level governance is considered by policy scholars as a promising approach to make sense of increasingly complex policymaking processes, implying the interaction between different levels of government and between public and non-public actors. By considering the politically sensitive immigrant integration issue, this article attempts to point out how multi-level governance relations concretely take shape at the regional level in Italy, and which factors account for regional differentiation. Our study suggests that contextual and organisational factors are particularly relevant, that is, social policy traditions, the regions’ internal organisation and the individual civil servants’ attitudes. Nevertheless, politics should also be carefully taken into account.