The impact of multilevel policy and governance: A comparative study of access to language training in Cosenza, Glasgow, Malmö, and Nicosia

Access to language training is often a challenge for persons granted international protection in EU-countries. This article investigates language provision for refugees from a policy and governance perspective. The goal is to explain the local differences in language training provisions in EU countries. We use a most different cases approach including Cosenza in Italy, Glasgow in Scotland, Malmö in Sweden and Nicosia in Cyprus. We find that the combination of state policies and governance do explain differences in local access to language training. The results also strongly indicate that local governments are dependent on support from higher levels of government to secure training opportunities. The state is still the main actor, and its choices of policies and governance instruments are central for understanding differences in language provision for refugees in EU member states.