Let 𝐺 be a locally compact unimodular group, and let 𝜙 be some function of 𝑛 variables on 𝐺. To such a 𝜙, one can associate a multilinear Fourier multiplier, which acts on some 𝑛-fold product of the non-commutative 𝐿 𝑝 -spaces of the group von Neumann algebra. One may also define an associated Schur multiplier, which acts on an 𝑛-fold product of Schatten classes 𝑆 𝑝 (𝐿 2 (𝐺) ). We generalize well-known transference results from the linear case to the multilinear case. In particular, we show that the so-called 'multiplicatively bounded ( 𝑝 1 , . . . , 𝑝 𝑛 )-norm' of a multilinear Schur multiplier is bounded above by the corresponding multiplicatively bounded norm of the Fourier multiplier, with equality whenever the group is amenable. Further, we prove that the bilinear Hilbert transform is not bounded as a vector valued map 𝐿 𝑝 1 (R, 𝑆 𝑝 1 ) × 𝐿 𝑝 2 (R, 𝑆 𝑝 2 ) → 𝐿 1 (R, 𝑆 1 ), whenever 𝑝 1 and 𝑝 2 are such that 1A similar result holds for certain Calderón-Zygmund type operators. This is in contrast to the non-vector valued Euclidean case.