Many narratives attempt to unfold the truth about Brain Drain, moving from an undeveloped country, and Brain Gain, settling in a developed country. The unidirectional view of Brain Drain is defined through well-educated and highly skilled workers, whether temporary or permanent (Docquier, 2014). The theoretical framework that will anchor this study is the Hybrid Identity Theory (Rumbaut, 1994, Smith & Leavy, 2008). Additionally, Norton's findings are related to ethnicity and marginalized discourses that focus on the monocultural identity context. Relationships between multicultural and ethnic identity development for languages generate economic ramifications for secure jobs in cosmopolitan organizations. This theoretical framework contains two theories in three core portions that will provide an understanding of the two research qualitative questions.  The purpose of the study is to examine the phenomenon known as Brain-Drain and how it affects the South-Eastern European (SEE) identities of educated native immigrants who have emigrated to western civilization and who willingly accept their transformational process as a hybrid identity. Hybrid identities (Smith & Leavy, 2008) of highly skilled immigrants contribute to the process that facilitates educational exchange by building multifaceted international networks, teaching globally, gaining new skills with advanced curricular technological and language assets, and accepting opportunities for mobile capital. The outcome of hybrid identity theory (Bhabha, 1990) created comparative solutions that brightened the experience of collective memories from back home. These double South Eastern European-American identity groups, who live in developed societies, freely reflect the participant’s response and show how a person with a hybrid identity understands, guides, and experiences the Brain-Drain phenomena. Furthermore, engaging or helping their communities with educational and socio-economic challenges are affected when pursuing high academic skills in America. This qualitative research will employ a narrative inquiry approach to explore the Brain-Drain phenomenon (Docquier, 2014) by examining the life experiences of highly educated SEE ethnicity currently living in the American society.

The research question is: How do Balkan-born professionals, understand their cultural identity during their education in an American college or university?

Focusing on heartbreaking stories and events in participants' lives can learn important information about Brain-Drain SEE countries. This qualitative research study addresses the transformative sense of participants’ hybrid identities as these educated people move from SEE countries for educational and economic reasons (UNESCO, 2019).The Department of Education in the United States offers academic opportunities for immigrant students to become eligible for fulfilling graduate program requirements to pursue schooling at any level (U.S. Department of Education, 2020). In this study, participants will be SEE individuals who have become highly educated with a minimum bachelor's degree in a college or university in North American universities. The SEE phenomenon needs a plan for these highly skilled professionals and scholars to engage in their communities to advance development and capacity building for sustainable network progress in their native countries. Chaffee (2019) regarding global education, sees educational research with critical thinking inquiries as uniting subject areas for institutional drivers in a productive society. American institutional approaches create flexible spaces for empirical investigations of hybrid identities. This demonstrates the impact of changing immigrants’ consciousness to conceptualize self-identity for education in a cosmopolitan society. 

The qualitative methodology is grounded in narrative inquiry (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). Constructed methods research setting started with online data collecting via a Webex platform in which the investigator analyzed using qualitative MAXQDA 2019 software by classifying data for results are guided for further discussion. The study’s question is to explore the hybrid identity experiences different from their cultural ‘Brain Drain’ identifying narratives of the 21st century and why the ethnic identity of the highly skilled becomes acculturated in colleges or universities, and how SEE’s citizens play a critical role in American society. Narrative studies by tradition explore human experiences and give voices to the phenomenon (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). In this study, the systematic approach with open-ended interview questions will help explore the narratives of the SEE identity. Systematic analysis of qualitative data confronts research questions and collects empirical data (Creswell & Plano 2009). Interviews will be conducted online, and documents will be analyzed using contextual forms such as images, photos, and texts that signify a chronological order (Polkinghorne, 1995). For systematic analysis, MAXQDA is a suitable software where interview protocols present categories, multiple coding, memos, and optimal visualization to interpret the data from a theoretical ground point (Rädiker & Kuckartz, 2020). According to Creswell (2018), the purposeful sample must include the issues and phenomena of the participants in the study. From the 15 selected participants, the principal investigator reached saturation with data from the interview protocol (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). For this interview protocol, the principal investigator conducted a semi-structural interview through Webex, an online platform with native-born SEE’s graduate volunteers from colleges and universities that professionally resides in an American career. During COVID-19, students or professionals have been technologically supported to reach out to the social network, websites, chat rooms, blogs, digital videos, and online communication like a WebEx platform (Kluwer, 2020). Visual data (Saldana & Omasta, 2016) can be used for words, metaphors, or phrases along with the 2019 MAQDA software analysis. These relationships or similarities between categories are shown on the map. Another visual figure is word-cloud which could determine frequencies and combinations based on prioritized segments (Rädiker & Kuckartz, 2020). Thorndike and Guba conceptualized reliability and validity as trustworthiness for research studies with critical issues (Creswell & Plano, 2009). The Institutional Review Board (IRB) will examine the ethical considerations of the study. The phenomenon safeguards confidence and relies on results.

This study shows hybrid identities (Bhabha, 2004) are distinguished by their cultural identities (Tajfel, 1978) and how SEE achieved status and understand educational patterns adjusted for global citizenship. Acculturation themes link identity experiences and assignment achievements (Rumbaut, 2009). Feminists and graphic designers unfold lifestyle differences like a big challenge in the STEM curricula. The gender roles are stereotyped as ‘having fewer job hours and social security. Similarly, amazon managers claim that ‘educated professionals must learn from the global technology village.' According to Spring (2015), international STEM students with standardized tests (TIMS and PISA) have comprehensively approached American universities and worldwide careers. Adjusting classroom skills with corporate culture, professors contributed towards accountable student experiences and perspectives with research and applied classes. For instance, these curriculum methods understand the diasporic investment and building corporate networking (Muthanna & Sang, 2018). Wellness themes contribute to living standards ‘having social and medical incentives, family planning and organized futures.’ In understanding a sustainable lifestyle, the holistic coach takes responsibility by enjoying the practice of opening a ‘mother-sister company’ back home. The global citizen theme understands mobility ‘in real time’ using scientific knowledge in neoliberal paradigms (Fullan, 2016), while hybrids may play mediation roles for educational curriculum and instructional careers in education. Otherwise, push factors to elevate consequential measurements and data misleads interpretation of fully skilled immigrants abroad (Horvat, 2005). The computer engineer advocate belongingness with ‘double passports’ to enjoy business inclusion by accelerating global living standards. Hybrid identities exemplify lived experienced pathways between brain drain and brain circulations (Nussbaum, 1996). Therefore, these hybrids international students became influential from top to bottom based on scientific truth that may change the global educational trajectory in teaching and learning in order to be acculturated in cosmopolitanian society.

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