The aim of this paper is to attempt to improve knowledge about spatial mobilities and immobilities, whose causes are still rarely investigated. This reflection is based on the case of international students who represent a highly mobile part of the world population. They have crossed borders and covered many kilometres in order to study in a foreign country. Are these very mobile individuals at the international level also mobile at a more local scale during their stay ? The survey shows that students from developed countries (North America, Europe) are more mobile than students from developing and emerging countries (Africa, Asia). This paper investigates the reasons of these disparities analysing the impact of the unequal distribution of social resources between students on their spatial practices. However, these social resources cannot explain all the immobilities regarding the case of Asian students who have not many financial difficulties and who are not very mobile. The key of the spatial mobilities of international students is the meaning attributed by these students to their migration which, with regard to the significance of the stakes involved, do not follow the same practices during the stay. For students from developing and emerging countries, studies and diploma are the aims of their international migration, so leisure mobilities are not the priority, contrary to students from developed countries who decided to study abroad in order to learn a language, discover a country and meet new people, which explains their significant mobility.