In our paper, we discuss international mobility of highly skilled professionals in the Swedish medical field: specialized physicians and medical molecular biologists and who had been trained and worked in Sweden, but spent some time working abroad and returned to Sweden. Our aim is to analyse the returners’ narratives about experiences of (repeated) mobility. We will present their incentives to move to another country and the not always smooth process of organizing the prolonged stay abroad. There are family considerations – with both hardships on and benefits for family life, there are practical issues to solve and economic obstacles. The expatriates reflect also on the knowledge gained during work in different settings, e.g. about organisational and national cultures and how international mobility affects the life trajectory. The expat mobility in the medical field will be presented through our three sub projects, focusing on: 1. Molecular biologists depended on international mobility for successful research, 2. Specialist physicians involved in both research and clinical practice, where mobility is more optional, but encouraged 3. Specialised physicians working as volunteers for international organisations, often under difficult circumstances, making it difficult to e.g. bring a family with them. The study is based on ethnographic methods, primary in-depth interviews. Cultural analysis is combined with theories on knowledge, materiality, Bourdieu’s theory of capital, gender and ethnicity perspective.