果冻影院

Digital nomads who work as they travel are often attracted by a life of freedom far removed from the daily office grind. Many head to cities that have become known hotspots for remote workers. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly, we find out what impact digital nomads have on these cities and the people who live there, and how governments are responding to the phenomenon.

The La Roma and La Condesa districts of Mexico City have become some of the Mexican capital鈥檚 favourite destinations for visitors in recent years. There are long boulevards and the streets are lined with leafy trees and dotted with picturesque parks and fountains. Wander into the right coffee shops and here you鈥檒l find some of the city鈥檚 digital nomads, logging on to remote jobs elsewhere.

Speaking to The Conversation Weekly, Erica from Finland tells us she was already working remotely before the pandemic. 鈥淢exico is cheaper, it鈥檚 great weather,鈥� she says. 鈥淪o I figured I might as well move here.鈥�

鈥淭he pandemic and the normalisation of remote work has certainly given the digital nomad lifestyle some legitimacy,鈥� says Dave Cook, an anthropologist at 果冻影院 in the UK. He鈥檚 been chronicling digital nomads and their motivations for the past seven years, interviewing people about their motivations.

The pandemic also made governments take notice of digital nomads as an economic benefit to cash-strapped economies, says Fabiola Mancinelli, an anthropologist at the University of Barcelona in Spain who also studies digital nomads. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why many countries started to create special visa programmes to attract this niche of travellers,鈥� she explains. Countries don鈥檛 expect digital nomads to participate in local life, says Mancinelli, but rather to consume locally using the higher purchasing power they get from earning in stronger currencies.

In Mexico City, however, the arrival of digital nomads is angering some local residents who are worried about changes to their neighbourhoods and rising rents. Adri谩n Hern谩ndez Cordero, a sociologist at Metropolitan Autonomous University who studies gentrification, distinguishes between tourists and digital nomads. 鈥淭hey seem to me to be in an intermediate position because they don鈥檛 come just for a week 鈥� they stay for a few months,鈥� he says.

In Mexico City, Cordero says digital nomads are drawn to areas such as La Roma and La Condesa where it鈥檚 easy to get around on foot or by public transport, and where there is a proliferation of restaurants and bars. He says that while these areas were already fairly well-off, the middle classes who live there are witnessing a form of 鈥渟uper-gentrification鈥�.

Listen to the full episode to find out more about the different strategies countries are using to attract digital nomads, and what this means for local residents.

This article was first published in听听on 20 October听2022.

Links

• Original article and podcast听in听
• PhD Researcher Dave Cook鈥檚 academic profile
• 果冻影院 Anthropology
• 果冻影院 Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences