Digital nomads: benefits for some, problems for others – Sectors – Economy

Although the headquarters of her work is in Mexico City, Abril has lived in Cancun for two years, facing the Caribbean. There she can swim at the beach whenever she wants, get around without a car and even have time to cook in her own apartment.

Paradoxically, working from the Riviera Maya, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Latin America, has meant more savings than expenses. That in addition to an improvement in their quality of life. “When I was at the office, it was a constant stress, I had very little time to take care of myself. Here people live much calmer, I don’t suffer from traffic and I lead a healthier life”, he says.

Cancun, Medellín, Cuenca, Buenos Aires or Mexico City itself have become recurring destinations for digital nomads. People who work on the Internet from a generally tourist destination, taking advantage of the best prices and the multiple advantages of those places.

According to Esteban Terán, from the Impaqto coworking, which has offices in Cuenca and Quito (Ecuador), digital nomads will stay in one place for an average of three months and then move on to another destination. They carry their belongings in a suitcase and a backpack, they have no problem spending their money on tourism and entertainment, but they do take the opportunity to save on food.

For the same, for Terán they do not have the same impact on local economies as the tourism sector. “It is a lifestyle that not everyone can lead. They are educated long before reaching a destination. In age, they are between 30 and 40 years old, that is, they have work experience, and generally work in the computer, financial or design areas.

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In the case of Ecuador, that country created this year, to attract digital nomads, a special visa that provides legal residence for up to two years. And it is not the only country that has done it: Costa Rica will return in 2022 a visa that will grant residence to remote workers who demonstrate that they have contracts with foreign employers.

People with this visa can enter and leave Costa Rica as many times as they wish. And in tax matters, they are exempt from paying taxes if they have already done so in the employee’s country. Of course, those who want to access this system must have a minimum income of $3,000 per month.

Mexico City and Medellín (Colombia) are also receiving large numbers of these high-income professionals. In the first, for example, the mayor’s office built an agreement during 2022 with the Airbnb platform to help tourism in more marginalized areas. But the arrival of the nomads is also bringing tensions, especially due to the increase in the cost of living in the traditional neighborhoods.

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Precisely in Mexico City, neighborhood organizations accused the administration of mayor Claudia Sheinbaum of having handed over the city to real estate rental platforms, which is triggering the already existing phenomenon of gentrification, through which new inhabitants with greater resources invaded historical and traditional areas, displacing local people due to rising costs, including rent and food.

Sheinbaum began, after the other criticisms, to study what cities around the world did to reduce these impacts, although spokesmen for his administration maintain that the complaints on social networks are rather anecdotal and are not supported by concrete figures. In the meantime, they are reviewing, among others, the case of Barcelona, ​​where in order to limit the phenomenon, Airbnb hosts must obtain a special permit to rent, under penalty of paying fines.

Enrique Soto, an academic at the Faculty of Architecture of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, explains that, on the positive side, attracting 5 percent of the potential digital nomads in the American market would bring $3.72 billion. But he clarifies that specific regulations must be advanced so that the original inhabitants are not displaced. “Public policies must be promoted that capture part of this income from the greater capital gains from the properties, to be reinvested in urban infrastructure improvements,” he maintains.

The case of Medellin

In the capital of Antioquia, they are also going from optimism about the large arrival of tourists and nomads with high purchasing power to concern about the impact on prices.

Sandra Arboleda rents her apartment through Airbnb in the ‘city of eternal spring’. According to her calculations, 30 percent of those who receive are digital nomads, especially from Europe, although she has also received Colombians who are looking for the climate and fun of Medellín to work from there for a while.

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“In general, the city gives them good opportunities,” explains Arboleda. In fact, on the pages where nomads search for data and exchange experiences, Medellín stands out. “If you want a low cost of living, pretty girls, good weather and cheap partying, Medellín is the place,” a nomad wrote in English on the Nomad List page. On that website there is a classification of the best Latin American cities for them. In the first place is Mexico City; in second, Buenos Aires and in third place, Medellín, from which points were deducted in the classification the poor quality of its internet and insecurity problems.

According to what María Bibiana Botero, executive president of ProAntioquia, told W Radio, “If Medellín were a country, it would be the first in the world in percentage of digital nomads (compared to its population)”. The Nomad List figures support that idea. According to this website, Medellín has 6,400 nomads per month, very close to the megapopulated Mexico City (7,400 per month) and Barcelona (6,950 per month).

But the optimism of ProAntioquia contrasts with the concern of organizations and civil activists. Even the mayor of that city, Daniel Quintero, pointed to the phenomenon through his Twitter account: “Housing is more expensive in Medellín due to the reduction in unemployment (it reached one digit), more young people seek independence. Tourism and digital nomads: Medellín is the third best city to visit in the world”.

In traditional neighborhoods like El Poblado, historically middle or upper-middle class, posters protesting against gentrification have begun to appear. Ana María Valle, a politician and activist against the phenomenon, maintains in a video on Twitter that “Airbnb is swallowing the rental prices. The social fabric of communes like El Centro, El Poblado, Laureles and Belén is disappearing because there are no neighbors with whom to build a future.”

Ana María Valle explains that the locals cannot compete against wages in dollars. “We are progressively losing spaces: access to restaurants, public spaces, basic basket, among others.” For the activist, it is urgent to take measures, and mention the example of countries like Portugal, where a type of visa that allowed residence to foreigners who would acquire housing was eliminated.

But what kind of measures can national or local governments take? This is a complex question to answer due to the difficult balance between the benefits, activated above all in the entry of foreign currency, and the problems, such as the displacement of the traditional inhabitants and the loss of identity, something very difficult to recover.

Experts maintain that one of the solutions goes hand in hand with investing a large part of the resources that are arriving on behalf of the nomads in housing solutions with a social impact. For Enrique Soto, this would bring greater urban justice, taking into account that many of the neighborhoods that now have high added value have gained it thanks to public investment. In any case, the solutions are not long in coming, as the rise of remote work, both nationally and internationally, does not seem to have an end in sight.

AUTHOR: CHRISTIAN ASCENCI
connect
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Member of the Editorial Board of Connectas.

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Non-profit journalistic initiative that promotes the production, exchange, training, and dissemination of information on key issues for the development of the Americas.

some figures

It is estimated that there are 35 million people around the world working as digital nomads and that by 2035 it will be 1 billion. The figures can dance, but what is undeniable is that it is a growing and unstoppable trend thanks to new organizational models, flexiwork, deferred work, project-based hiring or digitization.

Some data about this reality may be surprising, since there is a lot of bias and idealizations in the networks around this profile. First things first: digital nomads are not very young, nor are they backpackers or freelancers, although of course there are. Half are 40 years old on average, are qualified professionals, and earn well (the majority of digital nomads, 79%, are satisfied or very satisfied with their income).

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To give us an idea, 36% work as freelancers for various companies and 21% as permanent employees for a company, 33% have their own business and 5% consult for an organization. 83% of this population does not go that far. They travel within their own country due to time difference, costs and connectivity issues. Spain is one of the most attractive places for this group. AUTHOR: RACHEL ROCA
moral principle

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The article was edited for space reasons.