Digital nomads and Estonia

 "Digital nomads have existed as long as laptops, working remotely while traveling or living abroad full-time, often in scenic locales. The new kind of digital nomad emerging since the pandemic began: one who makes longer stays, takes fewer flights and maybe even puts down roots.

The world's sudden embrace of all kinds of remote work has meant that a wider range of people, including salaried employees (not just freelancers or startup founders) and older workers (not just footloose young adults), can become digital nomads more easily. Plus, several countries introduced new longer-term visas and residence permits specifically for remote workers during the pandemic.

Those trends suggest that there will not only be a greater number of digital nomads after the pandemic, but more ways to be one, says Steve King, a partner at Emergent Research based in Lafayette, Calif.

Mr. King's firm, which studies the future of work, helped conduct a 2020 survey of 3,457 American digital nomads, alongside MBO Partners, a business-management software company.

"The scale at which digital nomads grew during the pandemic was a shock to us," Mr. King says.

The survey found that 10.9 million American workers described themselves in 2020 as digital nomads, up 49% since the previous study in 2019. Most of those gains came from people working traditional jobs (up 96%) rather than freelancers (up just 12%).

"The other thing that surprised us was the diversity of ages," he says. Among the digital nomads surveyed, 42% were millennials, 19% were Gen-Zers, 22% were Gen-Xers, and 17% were baby boomers -- a relatively even spread.

Many countries, including Estonia, Bermuda and Mauritius, introduced special visas and residence permits during the pandemic to court more of this growing pool of digital nomads." [1]

 Well, again, those Estonians ... Newer nomads are taking root, bringing a lot of benefits to the host country. What about us Lithuanians? Landsbergis hit Batka from the left, Batka hit back from the right ... Oh, how interesting ...

1. Careers & Leadership -- At Work: New Ways to Be A Digital Nomad
Varagur, Krithika. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]19 July 2021: A.11.