Last month, Mexico City was rocked by protests against gentrification — in large part directed at remote workers who moved there during and after the peak of the pandemic. The complaint is that the influx of digital nomads has changed the character of some neighborhoods and driven up housing prices for locals:
As a queer digital nomad, I’m sensitive to the issues at play here: on the one hand, I want LGBTQ+ Americans to be able to move overseas if that’s the right choice for them. I also know that many of my queer friends back home are involved in their own struggles against gentrification — in cities like LA and Portland — and don’t want to contribute to worsening inequality abroad.
For some, U.S. citizens moving to Mexico represent a kind of neocolonization that will never be ok — especially not when the U.S. is so hostile to immigrants moving in the other direction. Remote workers who want to live in Mexico City, they say, should learn Spanish, earn pesos, and apply for a local work visa.
But I don’t think it’s fair to put all of the blame for gentrification on individual nomads. Many protesters are equally angry at the government:
In 2022, former CDMX Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum “signed an agreement with Airbnb … to boost tourism and attract digital nomads despite concern over the impact short-term rentals could have.… [Now], more than 26,000 properties in Mexico City are currently listed on Airbnb ... compared to 36,000 properties in New York City and 19,000 in Barcelona, where protests have also broken out.”
It seems to me like many of these cities are dealing with a common enemy — the short-term housing market, foreign property investors, RentTech — and there’s ample room for solidarity across international borders.
If you plan to spend time Mexico — or another digital nomad destination — and want to do so ethically, here are six easy ways you can reduce your impact:
