Affective Detection of ‘Brain Drain’ Through Video-Narrative Interview

The present study aims at monitoring the emotional side of the so-called “brain drain” by means of emotional expressions automatically detected during a narrative interview. Skilled people or people with higher education to reach another Country, generally following a job offer with better conditions of reward or life, theorize the brain drain phenomenon as the abandonment of a Nation. This definition, albeit complete, does not seize the complexity and evolution of the huge migration phenomenon—especially as regards the subjectivity of economic migration experiences. The present study proposes the analysis of the emotional experience of mobility embodied in the face of interviewees. A sample of 11 participants was selected, including four women and seven men, by means of chain mechanisms or avalanche. The method was based on the automatic analysis of brain drains’ facial expressions during a narrative interview video-recorded using Skype. The results obtained by means of the software refer to the emotions felt by each participant considering gender and permanence duration; they can also be considered as a first endeavor to understand the emotional impact of “brain drain” narrative recalling of their experience aimed at understanding their actual well-being. In this sense, this mixed-methodology, which is both narrative and automatic, can be referred to as “positive technology” since it may give real-time feedback on participants’ emotional states to the researcher/psychologist.