This article is focused on the higher education studies of immigrant academics’ during internship. These students obtain an internship that corresponds to the vocational and educational training they received in their homelands, during their first year at a Swedish university. The purpose of this investigation is to describe and understand the learning of immigrant academics in the clash between their former work culture and the Swedish. Particular attention is drawn to the issue concerning what knowledge in relation to their professions, these students find they have gained during placement. This is a qualitative study; assumptions and analyses are related to sociocultural theory on learning during internship that draws attention to the students’ ability to distinguish between different situations and their contents in professional practice. The results reveal that the encounter with the Swedish work culture has a twofold benefit. Firstly students share the knowledge knowledge obtained during their professional practice in their former home countries with their current placement. Secondly, they gain knowledge about Swedish professional culture, its language, management and work environment, as well as the language and Swedish language in general. Finally, the students gain better self-esteem, as they discover that they can be integrated into the new culture, despite their own different competences and approaches. We can obviously here understand the result from the sociocultural theory’s way of regarding that learning occurs in a social and cultural context. The value of the practical placement period is therefore of crucial significance when the same proximity to the professional culture is not available during the university placed period of the education. In order to facilitate integration, universities should open their doors and adjust current rules to meet the attributes of this group.