The language behaviour of student late re-settlers shows pragmatically motivated Code-mixing: While German is the dominant language; Russian is used to reflect upon specific ‘Russian-resettlers’ topics. However, Russian is far from a reliable factor of identity: the level of Russian language knowledge varies considerably within the group. It further becomes the object of a meta-discourse, by eliciting language knowledge in a communicative playful or serious way. The knowledge of Russian idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms forms part of their traditional knowledge. Yet, Russian, in contrast to the English or Spanish study languages, does not play any role in the communication of essential student life topics. Moreover, our research data shows negotiations of multicultural belongings. The ambivalent relationship to the ‘Russian-resettler’ culture of the parental generation becomes apparent not only in performative imitations of the Russian accent and the demonstration of linguistic errors, but also in the communication of topics that form parts of various habitus which in turn, marks the milieu boundaries within a family.