The digital nomad lifestyle is exciting for many workers of all ages. Many plan to just do it for a few years, but changing circumstances, frustration, and personal changes of heart cause some remote workers to become disillusioned and return home before they anticipated.
Working remotely in a foreign land is a dream come true for many people. The opportunity to do familiar work in a pleasing environment with new cultural experiences always at hand has increased the population of digital nomads to over 35 million people worldwide and 16.6 million from the U.S. alone. For many nomads, however, the stresses of life so far away from home lead some disillusioned digital nomads to pack up and return to their previous lives.
Some nomads see their lifestyle as long-term and may stay in one location as long as they can on their current visa before moving to a new area. Others view the digital nomad lifestyle as something they want to pursue for a few years before settling down. However, the lifestyle is not for everyone and quickly loses its romantic mystique.
There are common problems that digital nomads may face that encourage them to become disillusioned and homeward-bound.
Mental Health Issues
Being a nomad can be a lonely life, especially before making friends in a new country. Even after making new friends, the sense of community that a person may have felt with their long-term friends and family becomes weak. As a result, some nomads feel rootless and are subject to panic and anxiety attacks.
Part of this may be due to not having a permanent home where they are surrounded by things they love. Those who move frequently have to carry virtually everything they own in a backpack or suitcase.
Lack of Familiar Amenities
Nomads, especially those on a strict budget, might stay in hostels or rent out rooms. Their room or apartment might be very small, or the amenities far different from their home country. They get sick of having no kitchen, limited space, minimal closets, and possessions around them they like.
Trouble Maintaining Relationships
Unless a digital nomad moves abroad with a partner, any love relationship a digital nomad might have suddenly becomes a long-distance relationship. Stable relationships can manage distance, but dates become structured online communications, not in-person encounters.
Digital nomads can meet and date fellow nomads or natives, but when the time comes for them to leave, more heartbreak is likely. Leaving with a partner can be difficult due to visa constraints.
Lack of Ergonomic Equipment
Many nomads travel light with minimal equipment and then have only a small space to put it. Unless they will be in an area for a long time, they are unlikely to want to invest in a bigger desk or a more ergonomic chair. Some may work on a beach, couch, or bed with their laptops on their lap. None of these solutions benefits their backs or necks.
Unreliable Internet
The ability to be online is key to remote work. In many areas of the world, the Internet is unreliable and spotty. Storms and other natural disasters can wipe out Wi-Fi for days at a time. Libraries and coworking spaces may have better connectivity, but using those facilities may require additional charges to what the nomad already pays at the place they stay.
Tax Woes Get To Some Disillusioned Digital Nomads
Working as a digital nomad makes you subject to the tax laws of any country where you work. Some countries require no tax for some time, but U.S. citizens must pay on all income regardless of where they earn it. In addition, tax laws vary in every country. Digital nomads who overstay their visas in one country and travel to many other countries risk putting themselves in a costly tax situation.
Anyone planning to work in a foreign country must be sure they get the correct type of visa, renew it as needed, and have the correct tax information.
Financial Problems
During COVID, when digital nomad numbers began to soar, more than 11 million people worked remotely for U.S. companies. Freelancing nomads were the norm prior to the surge, and their numbers went from about 4 million to over 6 million. The increase in remote workers nearly tripled the number of remote workers previously.
Staying in a foreign country requires having sufficient income. Nomads are usually unable to work in the local market legally, so if they lost their jobs or their company called them home, their income was at risk. Many nomads seek multiple gigs and passive income to prevent financial devastation in case of job changes, but going home was often the best choice.
Uncertainty
When you want to work remotely in a foreign country, you may start out with a tourist visa, but this might not offer you the legal right to work. You may need a digital nomad visa or another type of work visa if you hope to supplement your income by working in a local establishment.
Many people work on a tourist visa, leave the country for a day or so to get their visa renewed, and then return. Few get caught, but this can be risky if local authorities decide to enforce the rules. This situation can make some people so nervous that fear overwhelms their digital nomad experience.
Some nomads aim to geoarbitrage and move from place to place in pursuit of the most amenable areas with low cost of living. This can mean moving every 3 to 12 months, depending on the visa requirements of each location, is LB, a Spain-based software development project manager noted in an article in Work In Progress. While this lifestyle is exciting and enriching for him and his family, he notes, “It’s a bit stressful and mentally taxing to reestablish your life and routines in a new area.”
He saw many aspects of each country that even many locals don’t get to see. “Finding a place to grab coffee, becoming familiar with local markets, learning how to navigate public transport—even dealing with local bureaucracies can be a bit of an adventure.” However, constant change is not everyone’s cup of tea(or coffee).
Changing Life Goals
No statistics document how many people plan to be digital nomads but step away from the digital nomad lifestyle. Those in their 20s often decide they ultimately miss home and the future they could have there. They want to settle down, have families, and pursue a steady career path.
Younger nomads, in particular, reassess their life goals and realize that a more traditional lifestyle will allow them to fulfill the personal and professional goals they have.
As noted in an article in NomadTalk, younger digital nomads, whose careers are developing, may find themselves impoverished and less financially stable than nomads over 30. Those in the older group have “salable skills, many have a job, many others have businesses, they’re in a stronger (often by a long way) financial position than the ‘foot in the water’ group.
“This, in turn, means that they can live in nicer homes. Eat better food. Fly rather than taking 48-hour bus journeys. And so on…” Older nomads return home, too, for reasons such as family, health, and changing perspectives on life, but they are seldom disillusioned romantics, the 20+-year-olds who found the life wasn’t what they thought it would be.
Changing Circumstances
Before COVID, nearly 27% of digital nomads were Boomers aged 58 to 76 who loved traveling and freelancing. Many loved the lifestyle, but COVID and COVID-related restrictions on travel made many come home to a safer environment. This older group now makes up just 13% of the digital nomad population. Over 47% are considered millennials between 27 and 42, while 17% are Gen. Z and 23% Gen X, who flocked to remote positions starting in 2020.
COVID was an unprecedented emergency situation in most of our lifetimes, but digital nomads in foreign lands can face personal problems and situational changes all the time. Returning home might be a clear choice if they or a family member at home falls ill. When civil unrest breaks out in a country where you are staying, you may want to go home, or the State Department might suggest it.
Many people are attracted to the digital nomad life because it seems like an exciting change of pace. While constantly traveling may be exciting, it is common to get sick of traveling. The other side of the anticipation of packing up and being on the road is the tedium of having to do it frequently.
