Americans: Please Don’t Move to My City

Your digital nomadism is killing us.

Photo by Nebular Group on Unsplash

So, I did standup in English for the second time yesterday. I’ll admit it was a little weird to try to find the right punchlines on the fly for jokes I’ve done a hundred times in Spanish, but I got through okay.

But the crowd in that English language show gave me a better view of a problem that’s been steadily growing in Buenos Aires: digital nomads and their dollars.

A couple from the US with “an online writing business”. Europeans “working online”. Russians escaping Putin’s war, living off of writing or programming or doing graphic design.

People like me, but not really.

All of these people are enjoying the benefits of remote jobs, sunny weather, and the low prices of a country in crisis.

All of them are making it much harder for us long-term residents to live here.

Everybody’s Doing It!

I’ve lived abroad since 2006, and in Argentina since 2009. I’ve never hung out with other European or North American immigrants much. There really haven’t been that many until now, because it was a relatively expensive place to be.

There’s also never been a reason for me to hang out with foreigners because I was…