When Alex Holder left London’s stressful work culture behind for a more family-friendly life in Lisbon, Portugal, she felt incredibly lucky. Living in a bright apartment on a charming, car-free street, she loved the balanced lifestyle and lower costs of the Portuguese capital.
But after a few years, she started feeling uneasy. She noticed more people like herself—foreigners enjoying Portugal’s affordability while potentially making life harder for locals. “I began realizing something felt off—the wealth gap was widening, and maybe I was contributing to it,” she tells Helen Pidd. Was she driving up prices and changing the culture of the city she loved?
Lauren Razavi, who runs a think tank studying migration and citizenship trends, explains how countries have tried to attract remote workers and digital nomads—and how things have shifted.
For Saturday magazine’s feature on digital nomads in Lisbon.
Alex Holder in Jardim da Estrela, Lisbon.
Photograph: Luis Ferraz/The Guardian
