Digital nomadism and global mobility: Challenges and suggestions for international migration policies
| Published date | 01 December 2022 |
| Author | Gökçe Sanul |
| Date | 01 December 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13077 |
272 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig Int Migr. 2022;60:272–275.
COMMENTARY
DOI: 10.1111/imig.13077
Received: 12 October 2022 Accepted: 14 October 2022
The three previous industrial revolutions brought advancements in the steam engine, mass production and the rise of
digital technology, respectively. The third one, known as the digital revolution reshaped the manner that people work
by enabling the transition to remote working. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this transition due
to the limitations and quarantine procedures relied on during this period. The flexibility that the internet and digital-
isation offer to the workplace, on the one hand, and the ease with which international migration may now occur, on
the other, pave the way for the birth of a particular type of remote work: digital nomadism. With the lifting of travel
limitations, recently, a fresh debate has re-emerged focusing on the potential impact of digital nomadism on future
migration patterns. International migration emerges as one of the key arenas where urgent policy-making concerns
in relation to digital nomadism are needed. However, to better policy-making, the international migration of digital
nomads ought to be considered from sociological and geographical perspectives. This commentary will bring forward
relevant policy suggestions in relation to these perspectives by shedding light on the questions of precarity and
inequality formed with this particular form of labour mobility.
DIGITAL NOMADS' PURSUIT OF FREEDOM FACING WITH THE QUESTION OF
PRECARITY
Digital nomadism is known as a new form of lifestyle-focused labour migration that is made possible by advancements
in technology, infrastructure and employment models (Polson, 2019). Part of Millennials, digital nomads, consists of
three categories. First, people having soft skills who engage in gig economy like copy-editors, website designers and
social media marketing employees. The second group comprises people with high-demand talents in technological
sectors such as computer programming or software engineering; and the third category refers to people who initiated
location-independent entrepreneurial activities after quitting moderately well-paying corporate jobs (Thompson, 2018).
Moreover, previous research on the demographic profile of digital nomads demonstrated that this particular group is
associated with white male, middle/upper-middle-class members of the Millennial generation, mostly from affluent
Western industrialised nations, with high levels of education and cultural capital (Hong, 2021; Tegan et al., 2021).
Digital nomadism and global mobility: Challenges
and suggestions for international migration
policies
Gökçe Sanul
Department of New Media and Communication, İzmir University of Economics, Balçova/İzmir, Turkey
Correspondence
Gökçe Sanul, Department of New Media and Communication, İzmir University of Economics, Balçova/İzmir, Turkey.
Email: gokcesanul@gmail.com
© 2022 International Organization for Migration.
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