MIND YOUR LANGUAGE: Linguistic diversity expanding rapidly across all 32 local authorities

by Charlotte Morris

A major new research report, Multilingualism and New Scots Refugee Integration, combining findings from two expert roundtables and contributions from leading scholars, educators, and community practitioners across Scotland, calls for a renewed national commitment to supporting multilingualism as a core pillar of integration, education, and community wellbeing.

Led by Professor Alison Phipps FRSE, UNESCO Chair for Refugee Integration through Education, Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow, the report draws language expertise together, aligning with the 2025 UNESCO Global Guide on Multilingual Education, Languages Matter, and with the ambitions of the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy.

It reveals that multilingualism is not simply a communication tool but a social, emotional, ecological, and cultural resource foundational to belonging, learning, and resilience for all.

The report will be formally launched tomorrow (21 February) at the New Scots Languages Taster Day at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, marking UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day.

Key Findings

The report highlights:

• Multilingualism as a core national asset supporting identity, confidence, and social connection from early years to adulthood. 
• A crisis in ESOL provision, with unmet demand, funding instability, and barriers to access disproportionately affecting women and people in temporary accommodation. 
• Strong evidence for arts‑based, ecological, and community-led practices, including storytelling, nature-based learning, multilingual cafés, and cooking classes, which create safe, relational spaces for healing and participation.
• Schools facing unprecedented linguistic diversity, with over 198 languages now spoken in Scottish classrooms; staff require sustained support and training to embed multilingual approaches. 
• Weak coordination and governance, with fragmented services and English‑dominant assumptions undermining long-term planning. 

What Works

Evidence across the research community shows consistent success among:

• Trauma-informed, ecological multilingual pedagogies. 
• Whole-school multilingual approaches, including staff language learning and valuing pupils as linguistic experts. 
• Positive multilingual, educational leadership at all levels
• Community-led, creative integration, such as multilingual storytelling groups and arts programmes. 
• Intergenerational and transnational connections, including involving grandparents abroad via digital tools.  

Priority Recommendations

The report calls on Scottish Government, local authorities, and community partners to:

1. Rebuild Scotland’s national ESOL infrastructure, with long‑term, ring‑fenced funding and a new ESOL strategy. 
2. Embed multilingual pedagogies across education, including certification routes for New Scots’ languages and professional learning for staff. 
3. Resource community-led and creative integration, investing in storytelling, multilingual libraries, gardens, and cooking classes. 
4. Strengthen interpreting, translation, and linguistic rights, and set national standards to counter misinformation. 
5. Advance racial literacy and radical listening across services to create “confident contexts” where multilingual identities flourish.
6. Strengthen the capacity of language leaders in schools and communities to support multilingualism for all, through New Scots languages.

A Turning Point for Scotland

The report concludes that Scotland stands at a pivotal moment. With linguistic diversity expanding rapidly across all 32 local authorities, sustainable change requires integrated, ecological, and human‑centred policies and language leadership that recognise languages as lived practice and heritage – not a policy add‑on. 

Professor Phipps emphasises that Scotland’s multilingual futures depend on “long-term investment, coordinated governance, and deep respect for the knowledge and resilience of New Scots communities.”

• Multilingualism and New Scots Refugee Integration will be formally launched at the New Scots Languages Taster Day at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 21 February, marking UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day. New Scots from across Scotland will offer taster sessions in their languages, demonstrating the community-led multilingual teaching models highlighted throughout the report. 
• Professor Alison Phipps is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. This feature by the Permaculture Association gives a useful background to her work with languages.