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International mobility is widely presented as a quality of academic career and academic markets in the discourses of leaders and stakeholders of higher education systems. Still, little research documents the effects of mobility on individual careers and academic organizations. Yet a growing number of countries have developed instruments that aim to increase the academic mobility. From a European collective research (EuroAC, the academic profession in Europe), this article analyses international mobilities, their temporality and territories, their effects on professional practices and career paths of individuals. It shows how the economy of quality, hit by the introduction of mobility as a quality criterion, comes into tension with the relational dimension of scientific judgment in recruitment. This increases the degree of uncertainty weighing on the candidates for entry to the profession.