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This paper focuses on brain movements of educated and professional people in a globalized world, where higher education has become a tool of competitiveness between countries. What particular shape is this influx-exodus taking in France, from the perspective of recruitment, invitation, and associations of teacher-researchers? We first notice that teacher-researchers from the South come to France as lecturers when those from the North are professors. In addition, mobility varies, with northern countries being the principal recruitment areas. There is therefore no proof of a brain drain from the South to France, except for the massive flow of teacher-researchers from North Africa to French universities. The second point is that the latter use short periods of mobility as way of supporting North-South development policies. Finally, the disciplines (computing, for example) at the heart of international economic competition are those that recruit the most people from abroad. These factors do not account for all inequalities, such as the amazingly low foreign intake in some branches of the humanities.