This paper will consider multiliteracy as students’ multilingual writing skills in three different languages: Heritage languages (HLs) – Turkish or Russian, in the majority language (ML) – German as well as in a foreign language (FL) – English. The aim of this contribution is to reveal different profiles of multiliteracy which exist in multilingual students and to discuss the potential of multiple literacies to provide resources for multilingual language learning. The necessity to reflect on students’ multiliteracy as a learning resource becomes especially evident in the light of the growing linguistic diversity in most European regions, which is reflected in the heterogeneity of students’ language repertoires and language proficiencies. In Germany, 21 percent (17 million) of the German population were reported to have a migration background, representing a larger share of migrants than ever before (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2017). In such linguistically diverse settings, the development of language skills may be determined by the status of languages, language prestige and their market value at the global level (Gogolin, 1997; Sierens and Van Avermaet, 2014) and by the variety of personal or familial characteristics at the individual level (Hammer et al., 2014). Thus, the intensive investment into learning the majority and foreign languages is promoted at political and societal levels and is reflected in educational practices across Europe and beyond. On contrast, the constellations for the acquisition of literacy skills in the HLs, which arise in a migration context, are restricted to HL classes at school, language courses organized by diaspora or non-formal predominantly familial learning settings. By conducting a Latent-Class-Analyses, this paper explores students’ multiliteracy profiles based on the data from German panel study “Multilingual Development: A Longitudinal Perspective (MEZ)”. With more than 2000 students having participated in this study and the broad scope of tested languages (Russian/Turkish (HLs), German (ML), English, French/Russian (FLs)), this longitudinal study comprises the unique and extensive receptive and productive data on students’ multilingual literacy skills in Germany (Gogolin et al. 2017). The results of our paper reveal that despite the given rather restrained opportunities for acquiring multiliteracy in a migration situation, there are students who manage to become multiliterate to different extends in different languages. We will address the necessity to consider the potential of students’ languages both learned at school or acquired at home as valuable resources for literacy learning in multilingual societies.

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