Over the past 20 years, Germany’s regions have developed distinct policy regimes at the subnational level, driven by divergent socio-economic realities, constellations in competitive party politics, and modes of including civil society stakeholders into the governance process. The article argues that policies of immigrant integration have been substantially decentralized empowering Länder and leading to a subnationally shaped, albeit regionally distinctive set of policies and administrative practices. This hypothesis is discussed with respect to the evolving role of regions as policy entrepreneurs in immigrant integration and a comparative analysis of Germany’s largest immigrant receiving Länder, North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria. From a theoretical perspective, the findings contribute to conceptualizing the dynamic of multi-level governance policy formation in the field of immigrant integration.

Oliver Schmidtke, Policy Formation and Citizenship Practices: Germany’s Regions as Laboratories for Immigrant Integration, Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2021.