End times for “digital nomads”?
19 October 2022
While it’s only one post, I wonder:
Not to make a big deal of it, but given that Mexico City (and similar “exotic” locales) have been attracting “digital nomads”, creating social conflict in some areas, no one seems to have thought though the long-term viability of the “industry”. That is, of outsourcing to people with no real ties to a place, who may or may not be moving from one place to another, when there are local people can do the same work, offer the same skills sets, and likely to stay where they are.
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The Mex Files 
I’ve met both Europeans and people from the US who work remotely, they all have had their jobs in their home countries before they moved to Latin America. I lived next to a Dutch couple who worked a shift that resembled a baker’s shift in Antigua Guatemala, very early start and no late nights. I have a niece who does electrical engineering for tight space applications, she lives around the world as long as she has a high speed connection.
Maybe a local could do what they do. My way of looking at it is that these people are renting space, buying services, adding to the local economy. They were raised and trained elsewhere so the original social imputes were not expended by the host nation-an economic win. Most immigration, both temporary and permanent are an advantage to the host country.
For now. It’s possible tax laws could change, or the industry just started paying the prevailing wages in the “host country”, as with call-centers. One gets the sense that many of the DMs assume they are “super-stars” (and many are) though much of what they are doing is routine work that employers would want to off-shore to lower labor costs.