The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we work and live. The digital nomad lifestyle has gained immense popularity with the rise of remote work.
Ankur Dhawan, President at upGrad Abroad, an India-based company specializing in helping working professionals pursue higher education, shared his thoughts on digital nomad visas in an interview published in The Economic Times.
“So typically as some of the job profiles which were rendered remote during the Covid times, continue to be remote, this concept will gain more popularity,” said Dhawan in the report.
He explained that digital nomads had the freedom to work remotely and liked the idea of frequent travel and that countries launched digital nomad visas to allow these individuals to work from their country and benefit the local economy.
Will gain popularity
According to Dhawan, digital nomad visas are becoming more popular as a means to facilitate remote work and international travel for those who earn enough to sustain such a life.
He suggests that countries that rely heavily on tourism could benefit significantly from implementing digital nomad visa programs.
When asked about the sectors allowing their employees to work remotely, he replied that most “tech roles” allowed work to be done anywhere. Additionally, a large number of freelancers and entrepreneurs were cashing in on it as well.
“Perhaps there are a few roles in an organization that allow work through such a mode, such as the ones that do not require regular face-to-face meetings,” he added.
Presently, over 50 countries worldwide now offer a digital nomad visa. Estonia, among the first, followed many countries in Europe, South America, and Asia.
Read: Digital Nomad Visa 101: Everything You Need To Know.
Challenges of the digital nomad visa
Dhawan explains that digital nomad visas are beneficial for both individuals and countries.
Countries only needed a standardized infrastructure, such as an efficient transportation system, good internet, and sufficient accommodation providers that would qualify them to launch a digital nomad visa, thereby attracting the high-earning global community ashore.
However, Dhawan hinted that some challenges come with implementing digital nomad visas. For example, only countries with sufficient resources to implement such infrastructural development could board the wagon.
On the flipside, countries that implement these programs can benefit from the wave of skilled professionals, enhancing various sectors while boosting their economy at the same time.
I love the focus on drawing in skilled professionals as digital nomads, Victor.
This is the key abundant-minded shift developing nations gradually seem to make with these visas…..or, just by pondering visas, in the first place.
A collective consciousness exists in some developing nations: What if a bunch of digital nomads flock here and take opportunities from citizens, even if said nomads are digital and work online?
That fear-based, poverty-conscious, scarcity-focused, limiting belief needs to go collectively in order to see this truth: when hoards of digital nomads descend on a country these folks:
– bolster the national economy by investing money in rentals, food, services, tourist activities, etc.
– teach locals – through their example – that virtual means exist for making money, empowering people and having fun in the process through online means
– present locals with a new way of thinking, seeing and doing not previously present before you saw more digital nomads from various Western lands
Digital nomads will not steal jobs or opportunities or price people out; they can teach locals willing to learn, to be open and to follow ways to work online, make money and move step-by-step with digital nomads. When you slowly but surely begin to make more money approaching Western nomad status you cannot be priced out of anything, nor will you ever be starved of opportunities, again.
For example, when I spent months in Bali I recall telling a Balinese dude how we could learn a lot about how to live peacefully, in harmony, with the Balinese. He then told me that folks from the States could teach his locals how to make money so they need not live in scarcity or poverty anymore.
We all win. We all benefit. But only as the world dissolves borders and allows for greater bonding and mixing of ideas.
Ryan