Canada wants to court ‘digital nomads’. Can we compete?
Digital nomads have taken their talents to the places they want to be.
They live and work in different cities around the world – in some cases, they are lured to specific locations by special programs that make it easier for them to do so.
Canada is making its own pitch for these workers to try life in this country, with Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Secretary Sean Fraser announcing this week a targeted strategy to woo them.
This strategy, part of a wider effort to attract technical talentaims to promote the fact that people who work remotely for a foreign employer can spend up to six months in Canada – and extend their time here if they are offered a job from a domestic employer while in the country.
Yet the country is competing against many other jurisdictions vying for the same highly empowered — and often well-paid — workers in technology and other in-demand fields.
“People and capital, and quite frankly businesses, are much more mobile than ever before,” Fraser said in an interview.
And enticing people to look into the possibility of living in Canada is just part of a process of getting some of them to stay here permanently and build a life.
Competition for top talent
Trevor Neiman, digital economy director for the Business Council of Canada (BCC), said the competition for talent is fierce and Canada needs to keep pace with what other countries have to offer.
“We have to constantly remind ourselves that newcomers have a choice of where to start their new life,” said Neiman, whose advocacy group includes 170 business leaders from a variety of industries.
Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University, agrees: “There is a global battle for talent,” and said via email that Canada appears to be on the right track.
Bloom said these workers are generally highly educated and many work in the tech and financial industries. And he said they are wanted by “growth-oriented governments”.
Canada’s population has reached 40 million people. The historic pace of the rise is driven by immigration and the need for workers, but it also exacerbates an already dire housing crisis.
Canada, now home to 40 million people, is growing rapidly and the federal government aims to keep it that way.
The flow of people is also critical for Canadian employers.
Members of the Business Council of Canada tell Neiman that accessing highly skilled and specialized talent in the country is a major challenge.
“It affects their ability to grow and compete globally,” he said, pointing out that it’s not limited to tech sector workers.
Plenty of choice
There are places where thousands of people have already stayed to work remotely.
Indonesia’s tourism ministry reported that more than 3,000 digital nomads have arrived in the country in the first eight months of 2022. This is according to a report from Reuters most of those workers came from Britain, Germany and Russia.
Meanwhile, some 9,500 Americans sought permits to temporarily live in Mexico City for a similar period in 2022. according to The New York Times. The paper said “many more” US citizens have entered the country on tourist visas, which allow them to work while traveling.
There are also a growing number of countries — Argentina, Barbados, Bermuda, Croatia, Malta, Portugal And Spain among them — offering visas, schemes or programs aimed at digital nomads.
Lou Janssen Dangzalan, a Toronto-based immigration attorney, says Spain’s digital nomad visa will allow the time people spend in the country to count toward possible future citizenship.
“Spain has come up with the long game. You want to capture taxpayers, you want to capture these people and give them a place to stay and you want them to eventually become citizens,” Dangzalan said.
However, he is less clear on how Canada’s own strategy will achieve this the federal government expects some digital nomads to land here will eventually seek employment in this country.
The details of these programs in Spain and elsewhere could be highly relevant to Fraser’s ministry, which has indicated it will “work with public and private partners” to determine whether more needs to be done to attract these workers.
The ministry told CBC News that consultations are underway to determine whether it would be beneficial for digital nomads to stay longer than six months, and what criteria must be met for that to happen.
What about housing?
When digital nomads come to Canada, they need a place to live.
These potential entrants to Canada may flock to some regions more than others, and accommodation availability and costs may vary accordingly.
But the cost of rental housing has risen sharply across Canada and that raises questions about how attractive the country is compared to other places where these highly mobile workers might otherwise be.
“How are we going to attract people with these kinds of initiatives, or other initiatives, if housing is unaffordable?” said Ray Sullivan, the executive director of the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (CHRA).
“What brings them to a country that has some of the least affordable housing in the world?”
In some cities outside Canada, there are concerns about the arrival of digital nomads and their impact on local housing resources.
In Mexico City, critics pointed it out an influx of home workers during the pandemic as a contribution to rising rents. These tensions attracted the attention of politicians, as well as media from outside the country.
“The digital nomads are coming,” said Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said last fall. “Obviously, we don’t want this to lead to gentrification or price increases.”
Nothing is foreign35:20Digital nomads versus locals in Mexico City
Mexico City has become a popular destination for remote work since the start of the pandemic. But the influx of wealthy foreigners is affecting everything from housing affordability to pandemic safety, and it’s sparking a big conversation in the city about gentrification. Featuring: Zachary Berkman, English teacher living in Mexico City. Tamara Velasquez, PhD student of Global Urban Studies at Rutgers University. Cara Araneta, creative consultant living in Mexico City.
Similar complaints made in Portugal.
But visitors also bring economic benefits, and in Canada’s case, officials see a win whether such stays are short or long.
In any case, Fraser said the solution to the country’s housing challenges is to build more living space, rather than closing the door on people eager to come here.
Sullivan of the CHRA had a similar view.
“The government is right to try to welcome more people,” he said.
However, he said that Ottawa also needs to create the conditions for newcomers to “have the opportunity to establish themselves successfully.”
That would mean finding an affordable place to rent after you land here.
