The pathways and trajectories for foreign doctoral candidates to enter the host country can differ considerably. These trajectories are not completely embedded in the higher education systems, they also include factors outside of work and academia. Our comparative study reconstructs the perspective and trajectories of doctoral candidates from Germany who are doing their research in France and the Netherlands. This includes why and when they chose to pursue a PhD in France or the Netherlands. Our analysis shows that there are prominent differences between both of our case study groups, which can be explained by their varying attractions for foreigners and differing concepts of internationalisation and national research focus.