The autonomous province of South Tyrol in Northern Italy is generally considered to be one of the most successful examples for the solution of ethnic conflicts. This book gives an analysis of the evolution of the legal instruments and institutions of self-government and minority protection through power-sharing as well as of the experience gathered during decades of the implementation of a "working economy." It thus provides insights regarding the state and the evolution of this specific case as well as for the general tendencies in the development of territorial autonomy and minority protection.

South Tyrol is a small, mountainous area located in the central Alps. Despite its modest geographical size, it has come to represent a success story in the protection of ethnic minorities in Europe. When Austrian South Tyrol was given to Italy in 1919, about 200,000 German and Ladin speakers became Italian citizens overnight. Despite Italy's attempts to Italianize the South Tyroleans, especially during the Fascist era from 1922 to 1943, they sought to maintain their traditions and language, culminating in violence in the 1960s. In 1972 South Tyrol finally gained geographical and cultural autonomy from Italy, leading to the 'regional state' of 2010. This book, drawing on the latest research in Italian and German, provides a fresh analysis of this dynamic and turbulent period of South Tyrolean and European history. The author provides new insights into the political and cultural evolution of the understanding of the region and the definition of its role within the European framework. In a broader sense, the study also analyses the shift in paradigms from historical nationalism to modern regionalism against the backdrop of European, global, national and local historical developments as well as the shaping of the distinct identities of its multilingual and multi-ethnic population.

Migration is an increasingly important reality for sub-national autonomous territories characterized by large historical communities or minorities. The diverse claims of these groups, on the one hand, and of new communities arising from migration, on the other, bring complexity to the management of migration issue in the territories. Migration and Autonomous Territories, edited by Roberta Medda-Windischer and Andrea Carlà, draws on the fields of migration and minority studies, to analyze the challenges associated with the need to reconcile diversity and unity in autonomous territories. The volume compares the cases of South Tyrol and Catalonia, characterized both by the presence of large historical communities and minorities, and significant migration aims, and sheds new light on how sub-national units deal with migration.