Recent results concerning the giant magneto-impedance effect, GMI, in magnetic microwires having diameter in the range of a few micrometers and heterogeneous character are introduced in this work. Two types of microwires have been studied, namely, (i) magnetic microwires covered by insulating Pyrex glass coating and (ii) copper wires covered by electrodeposited magnetic microtubes. The magnetic anisotropy distribution in each type of microwire is correlated with giant magneto-impedance. While the main source of anisotropy in glass coated microwires is of magnetoelastic origin created by the stresses induced during quenching and by the coating, in the case of the microtubes the origin is the columnar growth during the electrodeposition. The influence on GMI of various treatments that modify the anisotropy is analyzed. Heterogeneous microwires with different thicknesses of insulating coating and of magnetic tube are analyzed.