Who are Digital Nomads vs Remote Workers & what do they need?

How much difference there really is between Remote Workers and Digital Nomads? And what are the common things we all need?

I have recently stumbled upon an interesting critique of Malta’s Nomad Residence Permit. The author, Victor Borg, explains why he believes Malta has designed and been promoting its remote work program to a completely wrong audience. He argues that most so-called Digital Nomad Visas out there aren’t designed for Digital Nomads but Remote Workers and should be marketed as such. It got me wondering!

Digital Nomads vs. Remote Workers

Ok, let’s get right to it! We need to start with some definitions. According to the article and a few other sources, the main characteristic of these two groups are:

• Digital Nomads “take their work on the road, mixing work and travel, putting great value on the travel element.” They are usually in their 20s & 30s, primarily single, stay on avg up to 2 months per destination. They are mainly freelancers or self-employed (contracted by companies to work on projects or set hours on a self-employed basis) with average annual earnings of €18,750, so about US$22,000. 

• Remote Workers the “location is what attracts them to particular places – rather than seek to travel constantly, they tend to seek a location/s that they desire, in terms of lifestyle and geography, and spend extended time in that location, or even settle semi-permanently.” They are usually in their 30s & 40s, mainly in a relationship, but also single. The majority are employees, some self-employed (working from locations away from the office or running a company online from another country). Their average annual income is above US$ 50,000.

Here is a slightly different definition from Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Wikipedia.

A digital nomad is someone who performs their occupation entirely over the Internet while traveling, especially such a person who has no permanent fixed home address.

Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Digital nomads are people who conduct their life in a nomadic manner while engaging in remote work. Some digital nomads are perpetual travelers, while others are only nomadic for a short time.

Source: Wikipedia

Perpetual Travelers or Permanent Tourists base different aspects of their lives in different countries. They do not spend too long in any one place. Let’s also add into the mix: Slomads, nomads who are traveling slowly. Of course, slow traveling means different things to different people; but they usually decide to spend 2-3-4 months in one place. 

Time Traveling vs. Time at a Destination

The differences might be the age, the relationship status, type of work they do, the income they earn. But mainly, it is time spent at the location and the fact that Digital Nomads focus more on the traveling aspect while Remote Workers concentrate more on the destination. 

That said, nowadays, that difference between both groups becomes more blurry, ​​with remote workers often traveling as much as digital nomads and some nomads starting to slow down. 

Both groups also have a lot in common. They all enjoy; joining local communities, geo arbitrage (good lifestyle standard at lower cost), outdoorsy allures, or quality of nature and environment.  

Plus, I’m sure we can all agree that a digital nomad is a remote worker, but a remote worker is not necessarily a digital nomad. And this might have some impacts on what type of visas they need and where they pay taxes. 

Some sources suggest that only Remote Workers need work visas or tax exemptions, that Digital Nomads don’t because they won’t stay there long enough to benefit from it. That is not true, and I explain why in the What Visas & Tax Incentives do Remote Workers including Digital Nomads really need?

What about other types of working travelers?

Why stop with just these two groups? There are plenty of other types of travelers to consider. We need to mention at least two types of travelers considered by traditional Global Mobility. 

First of all: Business Travelers, who travel for business outside of their home country, mostly for short periods. Then we have: Assignees who the company asks to move to another country, usually short-term, but it can also turn into a long assignment.  

To add to that, most Assignees are also Expats, but not all expats go on assignments. Sometimes they move to a different country for personal reasons. 

The lines a blurry but love for traveling is what connects us all! 

The list goes on, but I’m sure you are getting where I’m heading with this. All of these labels might have made sense a while back, but currently, especially when we can work remotely from anywhere, these labels don’t make much sense anymore. We all move between them almost constantly. 

Initially, remote workers can decide they love this lifestyle and want to visit four other places in the next couple of months, then slow down again. Some digital nomads would fall in love with a location and stay longer. The combinations are endless!

We are all Global Nomads!

Here is an idea! Let us all be called Global Nomads! A Global Nomad, or glomad, is a person who is living a mobile and international lifestyle. Global nomads aim to live location-independently, seeking detachment from particular geographical locations and the idea of territorial belonging. It is an umbrella term that includes everyone. 

Anyone from the above list could be a Global Nomad if you think about it. We can all feel included! Because at the very heart of it, what everyone has in common is that we love to travel, explore other cultures, meet new people, learn new things, and expand our horizons! Everything else is just arbitrary. 

What do all Global Nomads need?

That’s why I’m reluctant to draw clear lines between Digital Nomads and Remote Workers, and I would prefer to focus on figuring out how we can all come together and help governments understand what we all need. We all want to: 

• Connect with others, and make friends either locally or with people who travel like us. We need communities and local initiatives that we can get involved with,
• Internet – We need fast and stable internet connections,
• We want to feel safe and know we can access a sound healthcare system if needed (using Travel or Health Insurance),
• We want to be in a country that takes care of its environment, with low pollution,
• We want to be in a place that is safe & peaceful, is governed well/ not corrupted, and guarantees fundamental human rights, with civil & criminal justice,
• We all like geo arbitrage – be honest! We go to places with lower Cost of Living. But we also wonder how to save on taxes paid back home, maybe not pay local taxes for a while or become tax residents of a low-tax country that allows us to travel. We all care!
• We generally wouldn’t like to live in a legal gray area where we have to watch our back and wonder if maybe something we said to the immigration officer might get us in trouble or that years down the line, we will owe taxes in a place that we once visited,
• And generally speaking, we all love this life, understand our privilege, and would love to give back to local communities.

What is the best Remote Work Program?

At Global Nomad Guide, we conduct in-depth analyses of all Digital Nomad Visas and Remote Work Permits and verify the information at the source with various Government Agencies (Tourist Boards, Immigration, Taxes). 

We have created the Global Nomad Index©, the first of its kind ranking of Digital Nomad Visas and Remote Working Permits, which analyzes almost 50 indicators organized in 13 different categories. We aspire to create a peer-reviewed Benchmark for Best-in-class Remote Work Program that serves Global Nomads everywhere and provides an easy-to-follow framework for Governments trying to attract Remote Workers and Digital Nomads alike. 

Feedback

We are only humans so if you see that anything is missing or if there is something that we haven’t covered yet, let us know and we will add it in ASAP!

Last updated January 2, 2023.