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Digital nomads have jobs that rely on technology, and they're either self-employed, freelancers, or working a remote job. They can also work full-time or part-time, and travel and work on short-term contracts on a freelance basis.
Digital nomads are unlike remote workers because they see each other as an extended family, one that goes around the world, collectively spreading a new model for living. There are often digital nomad events and spaces that pop up, seeking to connect the nomads along their travels.
Many countries whose economies were ravaged by COVID-19 started going to great lengths to welcome digital nomads. Countries like Barbados, Aruba, Estonia, and Georgia started offering special work visas that permit foreigners to stay for as long as six months, often with an option to renew.
While remote working has long been popular with freelancers, this digital nomad trend was amplified exponentially by the pandemic, which gave millions of people a chance to work from outside the confines of their offices. The taste of freedom combined with the growth of internet and mobile communication enabled more people to consider living in a different way.
A digital nomad is someone who typically has no home base but instead works remotely for most of the year. Some stay in one location for a while, putting down some roots for a few weeks or months, and others change cities more frequently, moving from location to location but staying connected digitally.
The places that become digital nomad hubs all tend to have an attractive combination of temperate climates, beautiful scenery, reliable Wi-Fi, co-working spaces, and, perhaps most importantly, a low cost of living.
Tulum, Mexico, is known as the "hotspot for digital nomads," according to Lonely Planet, and that's thanks to Instagram influencers, TikTokers, YouTubers, and other social media content creators popularizing the sun, sand, tequila, ruins, and easy living.
Nomads have also flocked to places like Chiang Mai in Thailand, Medellín in Colombia, and Bali, Indonesia, creating hubs in each of these cities and bringing a host of positive and negative effects.
Besides the obvious benefit of getting to travel and enjoy beautiful places, digital nomads are completely free from things like commuting, dress codes, mortgages, and more.
Popular jobs for people who choose this life are: freelance writer, graphic designer, content creator, programmer, website developer, app developer, social media manager, video editor, online teacher, and so forth.
Digital nomads are changing the paradigm around how a life should be lived. Instead of waiting to retire in paradise, they're bringing their work to the beach. They believe they are combating the epidemic of burnout, and choosing to see and enjoy the world as much as possible on a regular basis, instead of just on vacation.
Many argue that setting up digital nomad hotels and co-working spaces can create jobs for locals, and that bringing in money to restaurants and short-term stays can help boost their economy.
With more people getting out into remote parts of the world, they're being exposed to new cultural norms, foods, work attitudes, and other elements of culture that they're then relaying to others. It offers a slower version of tourism—which is destructive in its own ways.
According to a study researching digital nomads' effects on host cities in Chiang Mai province, reported by The Borgen Project, locals noted that digital nomads help inspire locals into entrepreneurship as they bring with them technological literacy skills, which increase locals' interest in digital work. Nomads also usually don't learn the local language and force locals to practice their language (usually English).
As digital nomads compete for apartments in “cheaper” cities, landlords take advantage of the pool of people who can afford to pay higher prices, or they stop making long-term contracts because they can raise the prices in shorter-term contracts. They also put homes on Airbnb because they can make more money. One big example of this is in Lisbon, Portugal, which is facing a huge housing crisis ever since it became a digital nomad hub.
Digital nomads seek out cheaper places where their wage can go a long way, but oftentimes they end up being able to fork out more money for rent than locals can, inadvertently enabling landlords to raise the prices out of range for locals.
Everything sounds pretty peachy when you think about working remotely, meeting like-minded adventurers, waking up every day in paradise, learning new cultures, and making your wage work harder for you. But digital nomads are growing increasingly despised by the cities in which they set up their hubs.
In Chiang Mai, digital nomads enjoy convenient working spaces, a lush choice for accommodations, and a low cost of living. And while they do purchase local products and put money into accommodations, they have driven a price increase and pushed locals (who still work for a normal wage) out of previously affordable neighborhoods.
The same has reportedly happened in Mexico City, where locals are unable to pay rent in previously affordable, popular neighborhoods—like Hipódromo Condesa, whose rent has risen from an average of 18,000 pesos to 60,000 pesos per month. Mexican workers are forced to move outside the city, thus adding to their commute and creating more pollution.
In a socio-economic lens, a significant impact of digital nomads is their immense privilege disparity when compared against locals. Particularly in the wake of the pandemic, when the nomadic trend surged, many locals were out of jobs while the digital nomad community continued on working and making money.
Besides increasing others' commutes and increasing their own carbon footprint through flights, digital nomads are leaving serious environmental impacts on remote locations. In Tulum, for example, as more foreigners settle in, there are increasing problems with the electricity, sewer system, and water pollution, as well as a loss of natural habitats for wildlife.
It's not like digital nomads are intentionally taking advantage of and laying waste to local communities, but rather they often don't stay long enough in one place to see or reckon with the long-term effects of their lifestyle.
A nomadic lifestyle inherently means leaving your friends and family behind. While digital nomads pride themselves on their community, many are suffering from acute loneliness—which is in fact what the communities are targeting through their popular co-working or co-living initiatives.
Some nomads told CBC that it's hard to find people with the same flexibility as you, and either you or they are always coming and going, making it difficult to form real connections. It's also hard to plan anything because you don't know where you'll be in six months' time due to visa limitations and requirements. It's easy to feel more alone than ever.
There's a narrative around being a digital nomad that conveys that anyone can do it, but it's actually a lot of time and work to build and sustain a remote work career. Plus, many nomads report that it's very difficult to maintain a work-life balance when you're remote working.
There's an instability to your employment, a lack of benefits, your expenses and income vary from month to month, and you hardly get to save because you're spending everything on travel. And while you don't have a mortgage, you do have to budget for accommodation, food, transportation, and reliable internet.
While co-working spaces are popping up, cities with big digital nomad populations are seeing laptops invading cafés—with some even banning them at certain hours. It's difficult for nomads as well, because they have a general lack of private space and their productivity can suffer when they have to work in public locations.
With many remote work visas, digital nomads can enjoy all the benefits of life in beautiful natural spots, without paying taxes there to help sustain them, putting a strain on the infrastructure and leaving little to no support in return.
Some digital nomads are opting for van life, which means setting up a mobile home and getting to work from the road or virtually anywhere they can park. They don't have to be alone and they aren't contributing to gentrification, but they have a roster of other challenges.
See also: Is van life all it's cracked up to be?
This could be a pro or a con depending on the kind of person you are, but living without many items is essential if you're not staying in one place too long. You learn to live minimally and not get too attached to material things.
Everyone working a desk job has dreamt of being able to work from anywhere in the world. And while the pandemic gave us a taste of what it would be like to work remotely, a demographic of young people have taken that dream to the next level and asked: what if, instead of being in cold, dense major cities, we could feel like we're on vacation all year round, while still making money?
Enter: the digital nomad invasion. If you live in a beautiful, warm, paradisiacal, low-cost place, they're coming for you! Equipped with laptops and jobs, these nomads are using cheap, remote locations as their office spaces—to mixed results. On the one hand, they're bringing money in to some cities that might need it, but on the other hand, they're becoming an extreme nuisance for some locals.
Click through to find out all the pros and cons of the digital nomad invasion, and judge for yourself whether it's time to beat 'em or join 'em.
The digital nomad invasion: helpful or harmful?
Has your city been invaded?
LIFESTYLE Remote work
Everyone working a desk job has dreamt of being able to work from anywhere in the world. And while the pandemic gave us a taste of what it would be like to work remotely, a demographic of young people have taken that dream to the next level and asked: what if, instead of being in cold, dense major cities, we could feel like we're on vacation all year round, while still making money?
Enter: the digital nomad invasion. If you live in a beautiful, warm, paradisiacal, low-cost place, they're coming for you! Equipped with laptops and jobs, these nomads are using cheap, remote locations as their office spaces—to mixed results. On the one hand, they're bringing money in to some cities that might need it, but on the other hand, they're becoming an extreme nuisance for some locals.
Click through to find out all the pros and cons of the digital nomad invasion, and judge for yourself whether it's time to beat 'em or join 'em.