The subjectivation of human capital: mobility as an investment in the discourses of young university students who have led the brain drain

Abstract

The precariousness among young people has been a constant in recent years. In addition, it is now entering in what looks like a different phase, marked by a reduced public protection and the intensification of individual responsibility in the midst of life courses with an increasing uncertainty. In this context, the notion of human capital increases pressure on the young people, who in addition to seeking “active” employment, must now invest in themselves, acting as “entrepreneur of himself”; in this logic, if necessary they have to go abroad, in which has been popularized as “brain drain”. The research question that guides this work is to know how young university students who have recently left the country for work are building the subjectivity of these new social norms on the vital precariousness. We have been analysed in depth interviews to people between 25 and 34 years, with university degrees, who have left Spain to seek employment abroad.