If you have never heard of digital nomad, it's basically people working remotely from anywhere with help of internet + technology. They are often advertised working from some tropical island and countries like SEA(south east asia) or some parts of LATAM(Latin America). Most importantly, they are also often from first world countries.
What about people who are not from the first world? Well, as far as I know the concept of remote working itself wasn't popularized until after covid where remote working suddenly became a thing. However, even a long time ago, within the gig economy, the workers were actually from so-called " third world" or developing countries. In fact, many developed countries outsource their work to developing countries because the wage is lower. The difference is that people from developing countries aren't traveling as much as those from developed countries. The desire to be location independent seems less than those from developed countries. Is it because we donโt search for a country lower than our living cost? Maybe. Although now, I found out that there are actually plenty of other places cheaper than Indonesia.
When it comes to digital nomads from develop vs developing countries, I do notice some other differences. Those from develop countries have stronger passport and currencies that allow them to be just anywhere compared to me who needs to apply for visa, be subject to discrimination, questioned, etc than them. For whatever reason, people assume that they're going to spend more while in actuality, they are moving to cheaper countries to spend less and grow their business, whatever that is. Many of them are also bloggers, copywriters, even MLM and they are proud of it. I find the difference that sometimes I am not as proud as them, because growing up, being a freelancer is a failure. Sometimes, I feel like I can't fit into the digital nomad crowd for a whole lot of reasons, which is mostly where I am from. Even in Bali, it seems like remote working was only for those in developed countries instead developing countries and us, are just those "gig" workers to be paid peanuts. Being Indonesian, having the desire to be location independent, and working remotely are some kind of foreign concept.
More problems come when many countries offer digital nomad visas that eventually only cater to people from EU, UK, USA with very low requirements. The Indonesian government itself is even planning to do it for them "tax free" and they can live in the country for five years. At the same time, I as the citizen have to pay more taxes while actually those people and me aren't that different. We both make a living outside Indonesia's territory. Bali for instance, with a lot of foreigners that people expect to "spend" more, they are driving the rental prices that even matches the rent in other countries. In a nutshell, it's like price of develop countries but with a taste and service of developing countries. All in all, it's quite unfair that these digital nomad schemes are only available for those in developed countries rather than giving chances to professional workers even from developing countries. As not all of us are just working to survive but there are people like me, who work to also live, not solely surviving.


![]() | ๐๐ข๐ค ๐ช๐ด ๐ข ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง-๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฐ๐บ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐ซ๐ข. ๐ ๐ต๐บ๐ฑ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ด, ๐ต๐ฆ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐บ. ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ค๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ท๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฐ๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฉ๐บ, ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ, ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ช๐ค๐ด, ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ต๐บ, ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ด๐ต ๐ญ๐ช๐ง๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐บ๐ญ๐ฆ, ๐ค๐บ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ๐ค๐ถ๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐บ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ถ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ๐ด. ๐๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ, ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ซ๐ฐ๐บ๐ด ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ท๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ด. ๐๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต, ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ท๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ, ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ข ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฃ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ. ๐ ๐ณ๐ฆ-๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ. |