Academic researchers operate in their own labour market, or field, which has its own institutional infrastructure and professional practices that value international experience and mobility. In this paper, we explore if and how academics believe that international experience and mobility provide advantages for knowledge exchange and production and can be considered a symbolic form of capital that signifies value and thus renders them more competitive in the academic field. In addition, we investigate if international mobility is fetishised in the academic field and treated as an asset independent of the context in which it occurs. Results from a qualitative study involving 42 interviews with academic researchers in Canada and Germany show that international experience is valued as a form of capital but that mobility is rarely fetishised. Furthermore, the international academic field is organised hierarchically, with the USA and other English‐speaking countries exerting the greatest value as destinations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.